


The Girl of the Wild

by Girlwhodreamsnw0n3ders



Category: DCU, Justice League, Nightwing (Comics), Titans (TV 2018), Young Justice - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon, F/M, Minor Original Character(s), Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-28
Updated: 2020-05-23
Packaged: 2021-02-19 11:15:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 28,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22443448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Girlwhodreamsnw0n3ders/pseuds/Girlwhodreamsnw0n3ders
Summary: A mask protects you. Defines you. But a mask only fools people on the outside. Pretending you're someone you're not changes you.My whole life, I thought I knew who I was. A warrior, a protector of the week, someone meant to do something incredible. Then suddenly, I'm uprooted. I'm no longer in the place where I thought I belonged. Everyone starts to tell me I'm someone else. A warrior becomes a monster. A protector becomes an enemy. And the idea of doing something great is lost in translation.But then there are those select few. Those who see beyond the scars and battle wounds. Beyond the painful past... beyond the mask. Those are the ones to be fighting for.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 3





	1. The Dream and Reality

I ran as fast as I could, there was a burning heat all around me. The flames were licking at my skin, and I could see it slowly burning the small hairs from my arms. I screamed and kept running. I had to get out, I had to, but there was no escape. No escape from this terrible, terrible place. The flames were getting closer to me, and I could hear the wooden beams of the house slowly creaking from the pressure. Where was I? This place was seemingly familiar. Looking around the room I observed my surroundings. It was a clay house with wooden supporting beams and one of the few rooms I was in had a wooden table in one corner with some matching chairs. I guessed it was the living room as well as the kitchen. There was a large bowl and pitcher in the far right corner on a small counter.

I continued to run. I had to get out of here. I just had to. I kept repeating this in my mind. But, there was no way to escape, the fiery flames were everywhere, they were surrounding. My heart was racing rapidly, beyond normal speed. The flames were taking away my supply of air, there was no escaping this. I crouched down and hugged my knees. I was going to die here, in this very room, among the flames. Despite the scorching heat, I began weeping wildly. My whole body was aching and trembling from the fire.

"Please, don't cry." I looked up from my burnt hands; tears were still streaming down my face. Who had spoken? There was a small slender woman near me by the burning table. She had long blonde hair and fair skin with kind, caring blue eyes. She wasn't in pain, nor was she burning. The mysterious, but familiar woman was just staring down kindly at me. "Who... Who are you?" I squeaked through my gasping throat. I was confused. How had this strange woman gotten here and why was she not burning? "It's going to be alright, my Moyo. It's going to be alright." The woman was now next to me, clutching me in her arms. She was trying to calm me down.

I studied her as her arms were wrapped around me. Why had she called me 'my Moyo,' or my heart? Her hair was pulled back in a long braid, and, although we were in a burning house about to face our death, she was calm, determined even. This woman had a strength in her that I could not understand, but I felt comforted by her. Just as I was beginning to feel as though we would die here, in this very place, I heard a crashing sound coming from in-front of me. I looked away from the woman's face to see a large blonde man standing in the fiery doorway. His expression changed from determination to anguish when his green eyes found us. He ran towards us, knocking over fallen and burning wood and objects from the house to try to get towards us. Just when the man was near to us with his arms out, a large beam fell before him. Cinders and flames shot from it towards me and the woman. I screamed as loud as my throat could manage when the flames from the large wooden beam reached towards my outstretched arm that was towards the man.

I heard a masculine voice calling me, it was his voice. But, it was panicked. "You have to listen to me, please," he pleaded to me. "You can do this; just reach as far as you can again. I'll get you, I promise." Who was this man and why did I feel as if I knew him and this lady surrounding me? Why did they not just get out while they could? I remained silent and looked back to the woman clasping me away from the flames. She gave me a look as if to tell me that everything was going to be okay. And, strangely enough, I believed it. I looked back at the man who had his arms stretching through the little space the fallen beam had not covered. He looked so... so desperate to get me free. It was like he was willing to do anything for me, a girl who did not know who he was, nor this woman. I slowly got up from the woman's protective arms and stumbled towards him. I reached out my burned hand towards his and he grabbed me.  
His muscled arms were around me, protecting me from the protruding fire as he carried me towards the door he had entered. "What about her?" I screamed, "YOU CANNOT FORGET HER! Please, please." Again, again and again I was pleading, but this man did not turn around. He kept running towards the door. "If I don't get you out first we'll all parish. You have to trust me. I'll come back to her, I promise." The man kicked aside another fallen and burning piece of wood in-front of the doorway.

We stepped outside of the burning building and the man put me down on the ground. He looked deep into my blue with green eyes. I was still crying, despite the burning heat. He bent down and ordered me sternly to stay outside where it was safe. No matter what I saw or heard, I was to stay outside, where it was safe. And then he was gone... He ran back inside the burning house, back into the inferno. As he entered a large explosion ruptured from the house as the roof collapsed on them. They were gone, each of them gone, gone, and gone, gone forever. The people who had saved my life were now gone in the process. And it was because of me. "NO! NO! This can't happen, please." I cried louder than I ever had. My tear drenched face pointed towards the dark sky. Every single tear that went down my face hurt from my burns. I gave one last shout towards the sky as I blacked out from this horrible nightmare.

I woke up screaming that late morning. I was out of breath and it was hard to get my heart back to its normal rate, even after my screaming had stopped. Looking out of my ragged house, I saw that the sun had risen. The house, which was now more of a shack, was one roomed and had been abandoned many years ago and only consisted of a small mat on the floor, which I used as my bed, and a wash basin and some cabinets. This place was now my home. I looked down at my hands. They were burned, along with the rest of my body. I had had these burns for as long as I could remember. For all I knew I had been born with them, which I knew was impossible. You had to obtain them.

But, the problem was, I didn't remember ever getting burned, let alone getting them all over my body. The only idea I had were the dreams I had been having. Each of them had been me in a house that was, indeed, burning to the ground. The dreams had been getting worse the more and more I had them. Now, it took me minutes to get my heart beating regularly again. But, I had never seen these people in this dream before, people that had risked their own lives to save my insignificant one. But, the weirdest thing was that I felt I knew them. I felt as if they were important people in my life and I could trust them. They couldn't be my parents. As far as I knew my parents had abandoned me when I was an infant, and that's why I didn't remember them. I had been raised by the animals of Africa, and when I was old enough, I was by myself.  
"Oh, well. I am busy with my job protecting the animals that raised me as a child." Getting up from my mat on the dusty wooden floor, I walked over to the wash basin and cleaned my face. The water had been put there the night before, which I had gotten from the Runde River a couple of miles away. I put on my brown tattered dress to head out to the closest town to... acquire some food and other necessities. I put on my cheetah mask and left.

As I travelled into the town I remembered the time I got my mask so I could become the protector of my land and the animals that lived there.

It was very crowded and there were street vendors, merchants, and large groups of people gathered together. The air was musty and arid. People were buying all sorts of goods such as: candies, clothing, jewelry, and fruit. You could hear the shouts of the sellers as they hackled in trying to get the people- tourists- to buy whatever they were selling. I was among them, watching the people as they spent much money on whatever they wanted. I was being pushed and shoved and came across an elderly lady at a stand. She was advertising unique animal masks with delicate detail. The mask I was wearing just consisted of a brown cloth I had made from the same material as my clothing, with little cut-outs for my eyes. My curiosity brought me to the stand, and I saw many African animal masks.

I saw an elephant, giraffe, lion, and even a small meerkat mask for a child. Then, my eyes came upon a beautiful cheetah mask. It didn't completely cover the face and stopped just below the cheek bones and nose, leaving the mouth uncovered. The mask was slightly furry and had spots and there were gems around the holes for the eyes. I picked it up cautiously and felt the soft fur with my thumbs. Then, the lady who was selling them came to me after helping a costumer. She was a large black lady about the age of eighty with kind dark brown eyes and a scarf covering some of her hair. "Mhoro, tumidza yangu i Nanji," she said. I smiled down at the short woman and put down the mask. Nanji's eyes followed my hands, gave an upset look, and put the mask back in my hands. "Aiwa, aiwa," I told her. I spoke to her in the Shona language, which was the same which she had spoken in. I told her that I had no money and could not pay for the beautiful mask. But, she kept insisting. She told me a beautiful woman who had to hide her identity, such as myself, had a reason and deserved to hide it in a beautiful mask. I finally agreed and went on my way wearing the newly acquired cheetah mask. I now wore it everywhere I went, hoping that I would see Nanji again.

The town was finally near me and it had changed a lot since that day a little over five years ago, when I was only thirteen. The air was now much dirtier from the new factories and large multistory buildings. I did not approve of this, even if it did add jobs to the growing town. It was killing the atmosphere and natural beauty of Zimbabwe. It was making my own job harder and there was less and less land for the animals to live on. Trees were constantly being cut down and more and more tourists and poachers had come. The poachers were killing off the lions and other magnificent large animals. "They do not care. They do not care for these animals. All they want to do is to kill. They bring deforestation and death to the land. They call them wild animals, but they are the true animals." I said this to myself as I grumbled under my breath and balled my fists together. I was almost into the town, my home land was hurting, but the land in the towns and cities were not great either. The government violated the rights to shelter, food, freedom of movement and residence, freedom of assembly and the protection of the law. And I had seen and heard of alleged assaults on the media, the political opposition, and civil society activists. Are there no heroes anymore?

I had finally reached my destination and saw a street vendor selling breads and fruit. It was now time to get some food. Yes, I had no money and did not care for the idea of taking my food. But, it was the only way I could think of. It was hard enough to find a job here, let alone one when you wore a mask. When people saw it, they knew you had a secret to hide. Why else would you be wearing it, right? Besides, there were many other people who needed the job more than I. They couldn't take their food like me, or at least, not without being caught. "Good," I thought. "He is looking away; helping a customer, now is my chance."

A large awning was above the stand that looked large enough to hide me. There were a few boxes next to a stand that I could climb on. Silently jumping on them, I used the momentum to kick myself off of the boxes and onto the nearest wall. I dug in my long claw-like nails to the building and kicked off and on top of the awning. Peaking over with my blue with green cat-like eyes I saw the top of the vendor's bald head. "Flexibility of the cobra," I whispered and I felt the blood go faster through my body, and my heart began to beat faster. The bones in my body began to take a different, more flexible shape, and my incisors took the shape of a snake's teeth. I gave a small hiss and bent backwards from the awning to the fruit. The man was facing away from me and I grabbed the nearest piece of fruit- a cantaloupe- and scurried away before letting a small hiss escape my lips. The man turned around, and saw me as I jumped from rooftop to rooftop. "Eh! Iwe didn't bhadhara kuitira rino, mhuka." "You didn't pay for that, animal." The man shouted waving his fist in the air, and I gave a mischievous laugh like a hyena for the seller calling me an animal. "Ha! I am, indeed, an animal," I laughed.

I stopped at one of the roofs and sat down as I was about to eat my newly acquired food. Below me was an old man begging for money, there seemed something the matter with him and I crept closer to the edge to have a better view of him. He was a native of the area, very skinny from malnutrition... and was blind! The old man was blind, that was why he was pleading for assistance. I watched the crowd that passed him. The greedy tourists were passing him, acting like he was not even there. I could hear the man mumbling for help, and if there was someone who stopped, they only gave a small amount, not enough to help him even a bit. Anger grew inside me and I balled my fists up tight until my knuckles turned white. "How can they not help him? He is obviously blind! He cannot help himself." I yelled and ran off of the building quickly and swung my body onto a large clothes line. I went down to the ground and when I was close enough I let go. Then, I did a back flip into the air and I landed in-front of the sightless man.  
The small cantaloupe was still in my hand and I looked down at it. Compared to the other fruit and food sold here, this was... relatively fresh. I squatted down next to the man and said, "Iwe uno fanira iva nzara. Ida iwe farira amwe cantaloupe? I i obvu." "You must be hungry. Would you like some cantaloupe? It is fresh." He gave a meek smile towards me and I took that as yes and gave him a large amount of my fruit, leaving just a little for myself. The remainder of the afternoon I sat with the old man and ended up telling my story. The story of how I became what I am and my powers. I told him of how my parents had left me and I had been taught to use my powers by the animals and they had raised me until I was thirteen years old. Then, I went home; to do what my guardians had asked of me, protect them. That was the least I could do for them after they helped me when no one else would.

The sky was a deep orange color when I got home, and it was a bit colder than earlier. The air was comforting and peaceful, but I knew my job today wasn't over. I still had to protect the animals of Africa, my home land. I walked into my small shack made of clay and straw, it was rustic, but it was what I called home. It only had one window by the mat and the doorway had no door. I walked into my place and grabbed my spear by the cabinets and looked into the small cracked mirror that was left there.

The mask was still on my face and I could see my crystal clear blue eyes with light green around the edge of my irises and pupils through my mask. When I saw my reflection I was shocked. I looked like, like someone I had met before. My hair was a very light blonde and reached my hips. The way I looked was shocking because most people here were dark skinned, had dark curly hair, and dark eyes. I was tan, but not close to the others I had seen here, well, the ones that weren't tourists. So, was I a tourist? Were my human parents tourists and decided to leave me here and return home? I removed my cheetah mask and looked at my face, anger bubbled inside me at what I saw. I put the mask that covered it back on, tied it on my face, and headed back out the door with my spear in hand.

I remembered during my training what one of my teachers, a cheetah, had said and what she taught me. It was on an evening like this one, and it was with one of my many lessons on using my cheetah powers, like her speed.

"Dindingwe, I am tired, can't we quit?" I complained as I stood next to my teacher. Her long tail swayed from side to side as she planted her feet in the dirt, ready to take off as we stood there. She shook her head and growled at me. "Quit? As a worrier- as a protector- you never quit, even if you are tired. While you are running, what have you learned?" She asked. "Ok, quiz time. Okay, Delmira. What have you learned from your teacher?" I thought to myself. My teacher waited patiently for my response. "I learned... that, even though you're fast, you have to wait for the right time to use it, because it doesn't last long." I watched the cheetah carefully, waiting for her response to my answer.

She smiled and nodded at me, and then we began to run again. When we were done testing out our speeds we sat down by the river and cooled ourselves down with the water. I looked over at her and asked her a question I had been wondering for a long time. "Why do I have to hide my face?" Her expression wasn't one I expected. I expected shock from the haphazard question, but one of my many teachers just looked at me with honesty. "I have been waiting for you to ask this question for quite a while," she paused. "You must always wear the mask no matter where you are, for you do not know how people will take to seeing your face. Take the hyenas for instance. What do you think of them?"

Thinking of what to say I told her that I thought they were weird and creepy with how they were always laughing. Also, they were not appealing to the eye with their dog face and backs that make them look like they were always bent over. Dindingwe gave a short, small laugh and was expecting this as my answer. "See, you have just judged them by what you saw on the outside. But, do you know them? No, you only know of them. Yet you have judged them, like others might judge you if they saw your true face. That is why you must keep it hidden. To be a warrior you must stay un-judged by others, to truly be free. If you are not truly free, you will not reach your powers. And they will be taken away from you. Do you understand?" I waited for a long moment before answering. I was taken aback by the cheetah teacher's words. To stay truly free from the world and to keep my powers I must stay free. And, to do that, I must keep my face away from the eyes of others. "I understand now teacher," and with saying that we headed back to the cave to get a night's sleep.

That was ten years ago, when I lived in the cave with the lions of my home, but I still remember Dindingwe's words like they were said yesterday. The rest of the day I kept repeating in my mind what my speed teacher had said, 'to be a warrior you must stay un-judged by others, to truly be free,' always wear the mask, always. Until sundown, I spent patrolling the area and helping the animals of the safari. I kept a baby boar from being trampled in a stampede; I helped a group of feuding and hungry lions, and stopped a couple of poachers from killing some baby elephants. And, I did all this with only some minor scratches that would be healed by the morning with the help of my super healing. I went to bed that night tired and hungry, but I was proud that I lived another day to help. And this time, I did not dream of that horrible fire.


	2. Mystery Girl

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy this second chapter! This chapter will be from the perspective of Wally West, the Flash.

Mystery Girl

Wally West woke up that day to the sound of banging on his bedroom door. The man, also known as the Flash, made an inaudible mumble and buried himself back in the covers. It had been a little over a year since the invasion and so much had changed. Barry had retired and Wally had now taken his place as the Scarlet Speedster. When the teens had saved the world from the Reech, Wally, who was then known as Kid Flash, had been shot by the Magnetic Field Disruptor that had gone chrysalis. He was presumed to be dead until a couple of months afterward when radiation of the Speed Force had been found at the North magnetic Pole, where Wally disappeared. Young Justice had gotten him back and Wally was now as fast as Barry Allen, but the gift came at a terrible cost. They lost one of their original members of the team, a dear friend. That was almost a year ago.

The knocking continued and got louder and louder. He moaned and rolled back into his pillow. "Flash, I know you're in there! It's almost two in the afternoon, get up." The knocking continued and Wally rolled out of bed clumsily. The room was still dark and the only light came from the stars and earth below from the window. He stumbled to the door, shockingly, without bumping into something on the way there. His room was a complete mess and had clothing, pizza boxes, and other miscellaneous items scattered across the room. *knock* *knock* "I'm coming. I'm coming."

The door slid open and Stargirl saw a very sleepy eyed red head. She let out a laugh and covered her gaping mouth with one of her hands. Wally put a hand up to cover up his tired eyes from the protruding light from the hallway. Courtney gave another laugh and Wally wasn't in relatively the same mood. "What is it, Courtney? I was asleep." Wally scrunched up his shoulders and said in a creepy whisper, "you know the morning is evil." Wally continued to rub his eyes, trying to get all of the sleep out of them. Courtney put her hands on her hips and smiled at the tired Flash. "Well, Mr. Grumpy Speedster. It's two in the afternoon and hardly morning, and you need to wake up. By the way, your cousin's fighting with Cassie again, thought you should know." Stargirl stuck out her hand and walked off. Wally gave a sigh, put on his Flash uniform, and walked to the kitchen and cafeteria.

The Flash walked through the clear, metal hallways of the watchtower to see what Bart and Wonder Girl were fighting about this time. Bart had taken up the Kid Flash mantle since when Wally had disappeared and the Young Justice was now officially a part of the Justice League. Since Mount Justice was destroyed they now were living in a wing of the Watchtower with the Justice League members. It was weird seeing your old mentors living with you, but you got over it after a few weeks. Flash started to hear bickering coming from the kitchen and let out a laugh as he walked into the room. "Can you guys not stop bickering for a day?" Flash had a really large smile on his face when he saw Kid Flash and Wonder Girl by an open fridge, facing each other.

"He's eating all the food! What are we supposed to have for dinner if he's eating it all?" Cassie said, pointing a finger at the smaller speedster. "You are so feeling the mode right now, you're just angry 'cause I'm a better hero than you." The copper headed teen definitely had the super speed metabolism his grandfather and great cousin, Wally, had. Flash looked away from the two teens in thought when he heard their bickering starting again. He put his hands on his hips and faced them again. "Hey... Hey... HEY!" Wally screamed and the two arguing teens looked up at the Flash. "What!" they shouted jointly. Wally thought for a moment before thinking up a plan. "Cassie, you can't blame Bart for eating the food, he's got the speed to keep up, and Kid, stop eating Cassie's food. Just have a small snack to keep up your speed, okay?" Wally said this with authority in his voice, and the kids agreed.

Then, M'Gann floated into the room with a grin on her face. "How about some cookies for a snack?" the white Martian said. Kid Flash and Wonder Girl looked at each other for a while, and, then said "Raisin!" and "Chocolate Chip!" at the same time. Then, they began arguing about what type of cookies to make. Bart wanted chocolate chip cookies and said that it was definitely better than crummy, old, wrinkled grapes. "But raisins are better for you than chocolate! You don't want to get fat do you? Oops, you already are." Cassie stuck out her fist, put a hand on her hip, and looked over to Bart, who was now standing there dumbfounded at the Amazon's comment. "Well, if I'm fat, you must be as large as brick house." Bart gave a wide mouthed laugh and held his stomach. Wonder Girl's eyes widened and then her mouth clenched and she glared. It wasn't a Bat-glare, but it was enough to get Kid Flash scared and he sped off, away from the upset Amazon as she chased after him. M'Gann looked back at Flash, stunned and asked, "So, I guess that's a no on the cookies?" Wally just laughed and walked on to roam the hallways of the Watchtower. "It's really funny," the Flash thought and then his face got a little serious, well, for Wally, anyways. "There are starving people in Africa and those two are fighting over what cookies to make."

The Flash saw many of Earth's mightiest heroes on his way around. He saw Green Arrow and Black Canary hanging out together, Vixen and John Stewert, or Green Lantern, in the weight room, and saw Vigilante and Shining Knight playing chess. He had now made his way towards the cafeteria to have a late lunch, of course for him: it's always time to eat. The cafeteria was a lot larger than the one on Mount Justice, but it was still a great place to rustle up some grub. Flash walked into the room and saw Supergirl at a table with Stargirl and waved with a big smile. He sped up to the cafeteria line and ordered three Iced Mochas.

After a few minutes, and a lot of whipped cream, Wally made it over to the table where the two girls were at and sat down. He made a habit of sitting with Supergirl everyday he was at the Watchtower, which was quite often since... "Hey, Flash." Wally, also known as the Flash, snapped back up from his thoughts and saw Supergirl starring at the red head. "Did you even hear what I said?" Oops, Wally was in a mess now, he knew girls hated repeating themselves. He should know, he was always blanking out when in conversations with beautiful women, which were most of the girls on the Justice League or in the Young Justice League. He remembered when Wonder Woman had had to repeat herself during a meeting for three times until Wally paid attention. And in the end the speedster got a very rough slap to the back of the head. "I said," Supergirl began as she snapped Wally out of his thoughts again. "There's a rumor we're getting another member to the League soon, well the young League, anyway." Stargirl nodded her head in agreement and began talking about what they supposedly looked like and what their powers were, but Wally's mind had drifted again. Of course, that's what you get with the perks of super speed; you get the annoying things too. Although a fast mind helps during missions and stuff, it's really aggravating during a conversation. You're mind drifts off to things while others are speaking, and you get easily bored with things. Wally thought of what Supergirl had said and he came to things like: "Who is the person? Are they a she or a he or, maybe they were an it? Are they nice, and will they get along with other members? It seems Red Arrow still doesn't get along with new members, even if he is married and has a kid. Oh, and what kind of superpowers do they have, or do they even have superpowers? Why did the League want another team member, anyway? I mean, I wouldn't mind another member, but didn't the League have enough heroes?" the Flash thought to himself.

His focus was taken away when he heard a loud sucking noise coming from below his jaw. His second mocha had reached the bottom and Wally had been sucking on just air for probably minutes. Wally got up slowly, even for a non-speeder, and walked over to the nearest trashcan to throw away the two now empty cups. He sped out the door into the hallway until he screeched to a stop, remembered something, and then sped back in. He saw Supergirl holding his Iced Mocha, about to take a sip. He ran over to the table again and grabbed the cold drink out of Supergirl's dainty hands before you could say, "flash." The Kryptonian's eyes were as big as saucers from the sudden movement and she still had the green Starbucks straw in-between her teeth. "Thanks for the intel. SGs, but I gotta run. And you still can't have my coffee. See ya." The Flash ran off again, but not before stealing thank-you kisses on the cheek to the two super-girls. He smiled a little when he heard the girls' remarks on the stolen kisses and say something along the lines of, "Why does he have to shorten the names into letters? I'm tired of us being the SGs."  
Wally was again walking through the halls, sipping on his half-empty Iced Mocha, when he heard a grunt coming from the training room and decided to take a peak. There he saw Batgirl and Robin (the third) sparring. Barbara threw a few quick punches at the Boy Wonder, which he easily dodged. They were slowly turning around, trying to predict their opponent's next move. Then, Robin decided to take the offense and run towards Batgirl with his bow-staff out. Barbara turned to the side and blocked the new attack, but it seemed that was what Robin wanted. With Batgirl (Barbara) distracted he jumped down into a crouch and swept his leg under her, making her fall to the ground. The machine read out, "Batgirl: Fail," in a mechanical tone. Robin snickered and stuck out a gloved hand to help Barbara to her feet. "You're getting better," a dark voice said that made Flash almost jump out of his skin. He hadn't noticed another person in the training room. He slowly looked over to see a... less grumpy than usual Batman looking at the other Bat-clan members. Robin and Batgirl looked over at each other and gave a wide smile at the rare and small compliment. Wally, now bored, walked on to another room to find entertainment, and this time he came to loud yelling.

"I'm tired of you always stealing my Angelfish!" La'gann shouted as he threw a punch at Conner, Conner dodged it and flew up into the air. Yes, Superboy can fly now. During the journey to get Wally back from the speed force the Team found out that on some occasions of strong emotion Conner could fly as well as see through walls. He still wasn't as strong as Superman, since Conner was only half Kryptonian and didn't have heat vision, or ice breath. Conner had now been training with Superman and could possibly get the other powers with time and practice like he got his flight.

"I didn't steal her La'gann, you idiot! Just because she broke up with you doesn't mean I had anything to do with it." Conner landed back on the ground and smiled. "Or, are you just jealous?" Lagoon Boy scoffed and put his hands on his hips, "Please, jealous of you? You're just a no good half-breed who'll never be as strong as his father. Well, one of his fathers anyway." Man that did it. Superboy gritted his teeth and his jaw clenched, then, his eyes began to glow. Like actually glow! "Superboy! Your eyes are glowing." The Flash shouted and ran over to where Superboy and Lagoon Boy were. They were now closely next to each other, fists clenched, and La'gann smiled, ready for a fight. When Wally was about to intervene, Kaldur was already on the job. He bravely got in-between the two heroes and pushed them apart. "Enough, you two need to calm it down. La'gann, I am sure Conner did not mean to 'steal' M'Gann from you, now leave. Kon, go get your eyes checked and report back." The two teens just stood there and Aqualad shouted for them to go and they reluctantly parted ways.

Half way down another hallway the Flash saw Kid Flash, Blue Beetle, and Beast Boy standing together in a living room eating a batch of cookies and talking. "I guess Wonder Girl and Bart finally decided on a cookie," Wally thought and heard the last of the conversation the three boys were having. "... and then she was like, 'No, they're sugar cookies.' And then I said, 'No, Sugar, they're peanut butter cookies.'" Blue, BB, and KF laughed and Wally continued walking after he threw away his last Iced Mocha. "Geese, is my baby cousin never going to grow up? I mean I know he's from the future and is Uncle Barry's grandson, but still. He's fighting with Cassie as much as I did with Artemis." Wally thought about this when he heard a robotic voice call above him, "Mission ahead, Flash, report to de-briefing room."

Flash sped to the de-briefing room, excited for the new mission. But, as he ran and saw everything as if in slow motion and the people's hair blow around by the sudden gusts, his mind began to speculate. He loved that he could be a part of a new mission, because not a lot had happened lately. There were a few insignificant thugs that decided to take on the big guns, but nothing major. And, usually when there was little trouble for a long time, something big was about to happen.

When he entered the large room he looked around and saw the transporters near with Mr. Terrific on the transportation computers and some mechanics who worked at the Tower working below it. The room had a large window where you could see the earth and stars; it was quite a beautiful sight, especially for someone to see it for the first time. Then, the speedster's eyes rested on the two men already in the room. One was clad in all green, a green Robin Hood style hat, a green quiver, bow, and arrows, and a black domino mask covering his secret identity. The man also had a large smile on his face, ready for a new assignment. Then, there was the other hero in the opposite of a jolly mood like the other. This man wore a long black cape, black armored spandex and utility belt and bat-mask covering his eyes, and above. The Flash looked at an impatient Batman by a large screen with a few pictures on it. One picture had a beautiful young woman with a spear in hand and was wearing a cheetah mask that didn't cover her eyes. Her eyes were magical and looked as if they were holding great power behind them and both were blue and green. She had long light blonde hair to her waist and she had a toned tan body. She was in a cat-like stance; her teeth were bared, and she was fighting off two poachers with knives. "Beautiful," was all this Scarlet Speedster could say.

"Who is she?" came out of Flash's mouth before he could think about it, obviously that was why they were there. Batman ignored this and turned back around to the screen as he went through pictures he had acquired. "SHE is our mission," Batman began. "Reports are saying that she has been found stealing food from local stands and has cat-like abilities and occasional powers of other animals, like the strength of an elephant, flexibility of a cobra, speed of a cheetah, and other abilities like that." The Flash interrupted the Dark Knights dialogue, slowly getting impatient and asked, "So why are we going to go get her? Because, I don't think we're going to get her because she's stealing food, otherwise probably over half of the world would be in jail or at the Tower." Batman was slightly annoyed with the Flash's impatience, but Wally was used to it. "I have reasons to believe this girl," he pointed to the screen. "Has information on you, Green Arrow."

Green Arrow was slightly stunned by this and his eyes widened with shock and asked if Batman was sure of this. "Oh, I am sure. She has information, whether she knows it or not, on you're missing brother and sister in law." Ok, now G.A. was shocked. His mask rose, like he was raising his eyebrows. Flash looked over to him with almost equal shock, "You had a brother?" G.A. snapped out of his trance and turned to the Flash and nodded. "Yeah, he's about eight years older than me, left when I was going into college, hadn't heard of him and his wife since." Green Arrow then turned his attention to Batman, who was still standing, looking at the screen. "Are you sure she knows about John and Lina?" Batman gave a small nod and said he was positive that she knew. "Our job is to go to Zimbabwe, where she is, capture her and return her to the Watchtower for interrogation. Alright dismissed, we'll start tomorrow at 5:30." Green Arrow and Flash left for their courters, ready for the new mission ahead. But the archer and speedster couldn't help but wonder how the girl had anything to do with the disappearance of John Queen and his wife Lina.

Green Arrow slid open the door to his bedroom after typing in the pass code and walked in. He fell onto his bed and put his hands behind his head. Does that girl really know something about the disappearance of my brother and his wife? They went to Africa it seems years ago, like... twenty years ago... to help with the effort to protect the animals in Zimbabwe. Batman was a smart detective, but it was still hard for the archer. Ollie had given up hope for his brother a long time ago. Ollie turned and pulled the cover over his body. That night the thirty-six-year-old fell asleep wondering who she was.


	3. Bag and Tag

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I will try to post new chapters every Friday!

The sun was shining through the little room of my house and I opened my eyes. The sun was bright and warm. I thought it was going to be a normal day... boy was I wrong.  
I got ready that morning with the sound of birds chirping, a few lion roars and water running from a nearby stream. I walked outside, felt the warm sun on my face, and stretched. My yawn was so loud and proud it could put up a competition with a lion's roar... and win. Then, I cheetah sped to the nearest stream. I stripped down out of my dress and stepped into the cold, relatively clean water. After cleaning my body, I began to clean my dress with some soap I had taken in the town where I usually got my food.

To clean the dress I took a few rocks from the stream and rubbed it rigorously with the stick of soap and stones. Then, I slung it across a tree branch to dry. After it dried I put it back on with my mask, which I took off so it would not get damaged by the water. As I tied a rope around my waist to make sure the dress was kept on my body, I grabbed my spear and traveled on to protect the animals of my home.

I was walking along, using my spear as a walking stick, when I heard the shrill cry of a meercat. I ran towards the noise and saw a large group of them above ground, which was odd since the small animals buried themselves into the ground for protection. I crouched down next to one and began talking to him in his native language. Yes, I can talk to animals... lucky me. "What's wrong?" I asked, now near the level of the small creature. "Nothing is wrong, young lady. We are tired of living in the dark, dusty ground. We want to live up here with the rest of the world." The small heads of the rodents nodded in unison and agreement. "Ok, now I am thoroughly confused," I thought as I turned my head to the side in thought, then I looked back at the one who had spoken. "Yeah, you're up here with the rest of the world... and all its predators that want to eat you," I said, putting my pointer finger on his small, furry chest, trying to scare the meercats into going back to their homes in the ground. But, they didn't listen to me and stayed rooted to their spots. "How about this, you go back to your homes and only come out when the coast is clear and when I am around. Okay? You don't want to upset me and get hurt, do you?" I said and put on my best beggar face. After many deals and pleading, they reluctantly returned to their burrows. But, I had to bring them a bucket of grub every week as a consolation price for staying below ground. "Weird day," I mumbled as I walked away from them.

Then, I ran into the elephants. They were stomping around with loud trumpeting sounds from their long noses. There was a small, baby wild dog in the middle of the chaos and was cowering in fear, frozen with it. I gave out a loud gasp at the defenseless animal as a large male elephant ran at him. "Speed of the cheetah, strength of the elephant!" I shouted and ran towards the stampede of feet, trunks, and tusks. I felt my blood rush through my body faster, as it did when I used my other powers. My arms and legs got stronger and my body got taller and larger. The strength in my legs was for the cheetah speed and the strength in my arms and growth in body size was from the elephant strength. My body grew small brown spots and turned a light yellow from the cheetah DNA and power I asked for. I also grew small tusks and my ears grew bigger from the elephant powers. "Man," I thought, "I must be a sight to see, with the weird look." I smiled slightly and sped on all fours to the chaos where sand and dust was flying in the air.

I coughed as I inhaled some of the dusty air and tried to search for the dog. Just then I saw a confused female with big black eyes run towards the young wild dog. She spun her head around and lifted her foot, not watching where she was going as she made the gap between them smaller. I cheetah-sped toward her and stuck out my slender arms to grab her foot. She was strong and I dug into the ground with my feet from the force. She just kept pushing and I was now a few feet into the ground. I was pushed to my knees and my strength and powers were weakening and I could feel my arms and shoulders sink with weariness. My head started to spin and I wanted to touch it, make it stop its spinning, but all my power had to go to stopping the muddled elephant from hurting the lesser creature. I gave a low whistle, snapping the wild dog next to me back to reality and I told him to run until he reached his pack. He nodded a thank you and fled from the large elephants. Now, I could let go.

I released my arms and tumbled away from her. I stuck a battling pose (a crouch with one leg out for balance and my two hands on the ground) and saw a small crater where I had been that had formed from the impact. I used the leg that was folded to propel me up onto her back. Once there I grabbed her ears and pulled her to a stop. I looked into her eyes, trying to search for an answer in them, then, I recognized her. "Ellie," I said with shock in my voice, "Is that you, Ellie?" My eyes widened, her eyes were astray and filmed over. She looked as if she was hypnotized. After many tries, I gave in to something I rarely did, especially to an old teacher and close friend. "I don't want to have to do this Ellie, but if you won't listen." I stuck out my cat-like claws, and with a swift motion, I sank them into the most sensitive spot for an elephant, her ears.

Ellie, my young strength teacher, the strongest creature in all of Zimbabwe, let out a high-pitched cry and threw me off of her back. Luckily, that got all of the elephants to snap out of their awkward states and stop their rampage. They slowly made their way back to where ever they came and the air settled. Unlucky for me though, I was thrown off of her back at her thrashing and landed on the ground hard. I tried to get up and let out a hard cry, tears streamed down my face in pain. I tried to get up and howled again. I reached a hand to my side instinctively and felt blood. At least two of my ribs were broken. More tears came down and Ellie ran towards me. "Did I do that? Ohhhhhh, I did that," she whined. "Oh no, no, no, no." Ellie blubbered and tears streamed down her large grey face from her black marble-like eyes. I gave out a huff of air in frustration. Ellie was pretty young for an elephant and was prone to crying constantly. "Ellie," I whispered, but she ignored me and continued to stumble around worrying. "ELLIE!" I shouted, anger enveloping me. She stopped in her tracks and looked at me, eyes bursting of uneasiness. "LISTEN TO ME," I shouted and then quieted my voice, trying to calm her and tell her I was alright. "I'm going to be okay; with my accelerated healing, I should be fine in about an hour. Now, help me up, please."

The female elephant smiled, now ready to help repair the damage she'd caused. She wrapped her trunk around me and helped me up, and then she led me back to my home to rest until my broken ribs were fixed. When we got there Ellie waited outside while I grabbed some scraps of linen I had kept for wounds. I lifted up my shirt and wrapped the cloth around my torso, making my shirt a sort of makeshift belly shirt and the lower part of my dress I wrapped around with a rope so it wouldn't fall off.

My mask was still on as I walked wearily outside to meet my elephant teacher and friend. Even though the young elephant was my best friend and had seen my bare face before I still didn't let her see it, I remembered Dindingwe's words. "Ellie, I am alright," I cooed, "my wounds should be healed in minutes, you can go home now." She lingered for a moment and then finally went back home to her family. "Family..." I thought and let out a long depressed sigh. Yes, I had the animals that adopted me as their own, trained me, and fed me when I couldn't do so myself. Heck, they even gave me my powers. But, I still wasn't at home, I wasn't one of them. I had Ellie and she was my best friend... one of my only friends and I love her very much and enjoy my shared time with her, but it wasn't the same. I wanted someone of my own kind, someone who understood me. I longed for that.

I saw other people my age in the towns and cities, having fun and laughing, I wanted that. I saw them from the shadows and every time it hurt me. I saw them love each other and fall in love, kissing and hugging, and I wanted that. I wanted to love and be loved by people of my own kind. That's all I had ever wanted for myself and I let out another sigh. I walked away from the shack to patrol the area again. Though I was tired I had continued to help the rest of that day.

It was odd. Chimpanzees had been screaming, alligators had gotten sick and weren't eating, everything was off balance. Even the air seemed thick and off beam. And it got weirder.  
"Chi-Chi, don't cry," I said as I patted the head of a little hyena child that had been crying for the past half an hour. Actually, all of the hyenas had been crying. Then, a large fat male one ran towards me, not watching where he was going, and bumped into Chi-Chi, they stumbled backward and landed by another group, also crying. I ran around trying to calm the animals with my words and even gave a few hugs to the little ones. "Coco, Suey, Joe, Bonanza, calm down, please. Everything is alright, just calm down." I continued to run around frantically and yelling at the weeping animals. "This is just getting weird," I whispered. First, the meerkats wanted to stay above ground, then the peaceful elephants went on a rampage, the chimpanzees and monkeys started screaming, then the alligators got sick and wouldn't eat, and now this.

"Weird, weird, weird," I kept saying as I ran around trying to quiet them down. "Maybe a joke will make them laugh," I thought. "Ok, yeah, a joke, that'll work," I said to no one in particular. "Ok, why'd the zebra cross the river?" Usually, just by the sound of a joke, the hyenas would start laughing hysterically, but they just continued to weep louder and louder. "Ughhh," I sighed and sat down hugging my legs. I was tired from all the work and stress of the day. Most of the time the days were quiet and I just had to fight off a few poachers and maybe a couple of angry monkeys. Today was different and little did I know then that my peaceful days in Zimbabwe were over.

Every joke I threw at them just made them more upset. I had given up and was lying flat on the ground when an animal walked towards me. I looked away from my hands to the ground and saw a small shadow hover over me. He had fury brown hair along his body and a long, curly hair to go with it. "Now, why are you so upset, little warrior?" The animal screeched and I sat up. I recognized the animal's scratchy voice anywhere. He had been my acrobatics teacher when I was little and was starting out as a protector. He was constantly cracking jokes about me being a hairless, tailless monkey with no humor.

His whole family had been little jokesters and it was funny to them to see someone who didn't share the same humor. I had been ever so series, even as a child. Of course, I was almost nineteen now and still had very dry humor. I only laughed when I was around him, my old acrobatics teacher. "Monkey!" I shouted, stood up, and picked him up in a bone-crushing hug. Monkey yelped a hello and I let go as he gracefully backflipped and landed on the dirt ground. I apologized for my strength (I was stronger than the average human) and smiled at seeing my old teacher.

"Monkey, it is so very good to see you again. How is the family?" I asked and my acrobatics teacher told me of all the latest drama. His sister had a baby, his oldest son's daughter has a boyfriend, and his two youngest daughters are still fighting as usual. "Oh, and dad just turned seventy-five," I opened my mouth in an 'o' shape and Monkey stood proud. "Yep, he's one of the oldest living in the clan." Then, he looked around, his tail swinging in excitement. "So, what's the problem here?" I sighed and sat back down on the ground. "Everything's been out of whack today; even Ellie went on a rampage." I buried my head in my knees and shut my eyes tight and whispered, "I can't do this. I've been working all day and I even broke a few ribs earlier this morning trying to calm Ellie from stepping on a baby wild dog."

Now, you'd probably think tears would start streaming down my face, but they never did. I rarely ever showed emotion on the field, especially fear or sadness, one of the many lessons I learned from my proudest, fearless, and most feared teacher in all of Africa. "Well, I'll just have to change that." My head popped up to see Monkey with a big smile on his face. "What?" I whispered as I saw him reach out a small hand for me to get up. "I said," he began as I stood next to him. "I'll just have to change that and help you." I smiled at the assistance, but the grin quickly left. "How are you going to do that? I tried everything. I even threw around a few jokes, but it just made them even sadder." Monkey gave a very loud laugh and called me a hairless monkey. "That is because you do not have a funny bone in your heroic body. Follow my lead and we'll fix this mess with some jokes." The rest of that afternoon I attempted to make them laugh again, but it didn't work, that's when I officially snapped. I got so upset I literally collapsed on the ground, dust flying everywhere. When it returned to the ground I saw that the hyenas were now laughing hysterically at me and then moved on. Monkey extended a hand and I got up slowly and rubbed my behind. Then, I said goodbye and walked on to continue my journey.

I had begun to run faster and faster as I heard roar after roar and birds were squawking, monkeys were squeaking, and elephants were snorting in fear. It sounded like total chaos and I was still a good two miles away, I ran as fast as I could and then I saw it. My old teacher, Leon, was running around with his teeth bared and swinging at anything that was near him. It was the scariest thing I had ever seen. My teacher, the strongest person I knew, was attaching things without any reason. Then, my eyes fell upon his eyes. They were the same filmed over, lost look that Ellie had had when she had almost hurt the dog. "Master Leon, please, listen to me," I said carefully and slowly crept over to him with my hands out. Of all of my teachers: Ellie, Monkey, and Dindingwe, even Gera, who was my giraffe teacher who had now passed, had never made me call them master. Occasionally, they wanted to be called Teacher, but that was rare. Now that I was thinking about it, it was because he was different from Gera, or Monkey, or Dindingwe, or Ellie. Ellie and Monkey were some of my best friends, Ellie the closest and Gera was like an aunt to me. While I didn't remember my own mother, Dindingwe had been in place as a mother for me.  
At first Master Leon did not see me, but as I got closer his nose began to twitch. Catching my scent, he jerked his head towards me, and I jumped back. Remember, Leon was a lion and one of the bravest most feared lions in all of Africa. And you had to be careful with lions, they were always unpredictable, and you could never turn your back on them. Master Leon prowled around me and we made a small circle in the dirt ground, never turning our backs on one another. It carried on like that for a while until my teacher began to get impatient and gave a low growl at me and then made a quick leap. I was caught off guard but was still able to somehow back-flip away from him. I could have attacked him, but I stayed on defense, I didn't want to hurt my teacher, and though he didn't think me of it, he was my family. My knees were a little scuffed but they were already healed by the time I got up again. "Master Leon, listen to me, you are not thinking clearly, please just calm down." But Leon just continued to try to pounce on me, and I kept dodging. I thought multiple times to use my powers, but I knew that since I was so drained of strength if I did I would pass out. I was getting tired and my body started shaking and sweating terribly. I began to feel light-headed and my legs began to buckle under me. My breath was short and jagged. I shifted my weight onto my spear and I could have lifted it and struck the animal and ended the fight, but I didn't. I would never kill an animal, no matter what the circumstances. I would rather give my own life than take the life of another. That's what I do. I protect.

While I was thinking, Leon had gotten close to me and swung out his paw. The sharp claws came in contact with my right arm that wasn't holding the spear and a sharp pain came from it and shivered down my spine. It began to bleed and the red gooey liquid had covered my whole arm and I felt light-headed. I swayed back and forth and it looked like the whole area was spinning. My whole face was now covered in sweat, dirt, and tears of pain. From the corner of my eye, I saw my old teacher leap towards me and knock me down. I felt my arm that had been scratched being pulled like I was getting stitches. My arm was heeling itself, but I had already lost a lot of blood. And at the worst possible moment, I passed out. I dreamt of one of my many lessons with Master Leon, my fear teacher.

***  
It was a warm summer day and a little windy. Master Leon and I were training in one of our many combat lessons. I was ten years old then. Leon jumped out at me and swung. I did a backflip to make some distance between us and then took my fighting stance with my hands out. We continued to do this for a few moments. When I got tired, I started on the offensive. When I started to get closer I heard a loud gunshot noise. I looked up from the fight and looked around. When I was about to turn back a sharp pain went through my gut. I instinctively held it with one hand and looked down at my stomach. There were three large scratches and they were starting to bleed. I took a deep breath and saw the scratches stop bleeding and slowly heal, turning the skin back to its tan, almost brown color. Then, my eyes went up to Master Leon who looked disappointed. I looked at him quizzically and he said with authority in his voice, "Never look away from your opponent when fighting. You must know what's going on in your surroundings without taking your eyes off of the task at hand." I nodded and then ran towards him with my staff -it was a little large for me since I was smaller, but I had already been training as long as my memory went back (four years) - and I carried it easily. When reaching him I pushed myself off of his strong shoulders and used that momentum to backflip into the air. I landed gracefully on the ground and swung my staff at him. When he turned around my spear was just a few centimeters from his nose. He nodded and I relaxed my bare shoulders. But they shot back up when I heard the gunshot noise again and it was quiet. The animals had stopped making noise and the air seemed still.

I looked back at Master Leon, "What was that, Master Leon?" I asked, but he just continued to look forward, preparing himself for what was about to happen. "What was that? Was that a gun? I've heard them before, but I'm not ready for them yet. I haven't finished my training, I've only been training for three years; four years living with the lionesses. But, the humans never got this close to the cave," I thought this and my legs began to shake and I got a sick feeling in my stomach. I was afraid! Just then four black birds flew out of the trees squawking; I jerked my head upwards toward them. Hearing a low growl coming from beside me I looked over to Master Leon. His front paws were crouching forward, beginning to take a fighting stance. I followed his eyes and saw a native man from the area with a rifle in his hands. He had an evil grin on his face and pointed the gun at my teacher. "A poacher," I whispered. At that moment the gun went off and I looked at Leon in fear. He had dodged the bullet a little, but it still grazed his ear and it was bleeding. "LEON!" I shouted, but he did not look towards me. He growled and said, "Go now, Delmira. You are not ready." He said this shockingly calmly and a shiver ran down my back. He really had no fear, did he? I froze, I couldn't move. I couldn't leave him, and trust me I tried, but it was like I was a statue. My feet were frozen to the ground. I was afraid! "Delmira! Now!" He shouted, but I just remained rooted to my spot, my eyes wide. The poacher pointed his gun again, but at me! I closed my eyes- ready to die- when a gunshot went out.

I waited and waited for it to hit me, but it never did. I slowly opened my eyes and saw the large lion standing above a bloodied figure. He was limp and no heartbeat came from him. He was dead! My teacher had killed someone. Yes, he was an evil poacher and was about to kill the both of us for no good reason, but it still wrenched my heart. Leon ran towards me, I could tell he was angry at me just by the way he traveled. I fell on the ground, scrunched up in a ball with my hands out protectively. He was now right next to me and I felt his hot breath in my face. "What is wrong with you!?" He shouted, but I gave no answer, he didn't want one. "I told you to go and you deliberately disobeyed me. You feared! You never fear, you never clam up like that, and you NEVER disobey me!" He ordered. "He could have killed us because you DID NOT ACT! If you fear they will take an advantage of that. And they will end you!" He roared with his teeth bared. He was one ticked off kitty. I cringed when he lifted his large, sharp-clawed paw to hit me. But, he stopped and his nose went back to its normal, un-scrunched shape. He turned his head from me and said, "we cannot lose you" in a voice so soft that a regular human couldn't hear it, but I did. Then, he walked away from me. I looked back at the lifeless form of the man who attacked us and slowly got up and followed Master Leon back to the lion's cave as tears ran down my face. I kept repeating his words in my head, trying to make them stick. "No fear, no fear, no fear." That eventful day was almost nine years ago.

***  
My green and blue eyes snapped open and I woke up and saw Leon's golden eyes. They were still foggy like the other animals' were before I snapped them out, but his eyes still had that gold color to them, "eyes like the sun" is was Dindingwe called them. I was lying on the ground with Master Leon pinning down my legs and arms, preventing me from getting up. And I couldn't use my powers or I'd probably pass out again. I was stuck and fear began enveloping me again. "NO! No fear!" I shouted in the Shona language and managed to get my feet from under him and kick him hard enough so he flew backward. He was slow to get up, and I was angry now. A roar began climbing up from my stomach to my throat, and I could feel it slowly getting bigger inside me. The roar reached out from my lips and seemed to shake the ground before me. Good old reliable Super animal DNA. The roar was so loud it knocked Leon out of his state and the adult lion blindly looked up at me. Just then a ton of poachers ran towards me and the grand lion. This just wasn't my day.

I readied my fighting stance with my spear pointed out and said to Leon in lion tongue, "Get out, Leon I'll handle them." My master was going to protest when I gave him a glare telling him without a single word that he wasn't fit to fight and he should leave. That way at least one of us wouldn't get hurt. He ran off and I jumped into my stance again with my spear pointing out. "Njoo uichukue." "Come and get it," I growled and gave a smile worthy of a devil. Some of the men ran towards me (I'm not sure if they were brave or just stupid), and I fought them with the fighting lessons I learned from Dindingwe, Leon and the lionesses, Monkey, and even some of Ellie's moves. A few were knocked out when a bright light came from the sky. They looked up and I tapped the man I was fighting knocking him unconscious with a pressure point I learned from Monkey. Then, I tried to look at the blinding light to figure out what it was with a hand shielding my eyes. The remaining men ran away from me in fear, but I stayed strong in my spot. There was a large blast and I swiftly turned my head away. When I looked back three odd-looking men were standing where the light came from. One was in a dark... bat suit? Why was this guy in a bat suit? He had a dark cape attached to his mask and his hair and his eyes were covered and there were white lenses where his eyes were. He had a fancy black belt and the rest of his armor was black with a black bat symbol on the chest. "Who is this anyway? A bat-man?" I thought and gave an exasperated look. There was also a blonde man with a unique beard who was in all green and wore a small domino mask. A dark green quiver and arrows were draped across his back and he held a bow tightly in his left hand. I presumed these were his weapons. He was seemingly familiar to me, but I shook it off and looked to the task at hand.  
The last was a taller male in a red jumpsuit with yellow lightning bolts on his sides and a mask that was similar to the man in black but did not have the long ears the other male had. He was younger than the others, I could tell because his facial features were less distinguished and his chest was smaller. But, he was still pretty well built, considering he looked only about a few years older than me. I suddenly felt self-conscious at his widening smile at seeing me. I remembered that I was wearing a brown torn sleeveless shirt that only covered the top part of my torso and left my stomach open. I usually only wore it if I went swimming with Ellie, but since I had hurt my ribs earlier I put this on with its bottom, a shirt brown torn skirt. But, I stopped thinking about that and pointed my spear at the new intruders. I shouted, "Wewe ni nani?" "Who are you?" They just looked over at each other without a clue as to what I was saying. " Wewe ni nani! Wewe ni nani!" "Who are you! Who are you!" I shouted over and over, but they still had no clue what I was saying. I began to get upset and my face began to turn red with anger. The man in red slowly walked over to me with his hands up in surrender. He said something as he walked towards me, but I still couldn't understand him. The language he was speaking was familiar, but I still couldn't identify with him, or his friends. Then, he put his hands on my tan bare shoulders, and a red blush entered my cheeks. Okay, now I was mad. "First, these strangers entered my territory with a blinding, protruding light. The younger of them stares at me with studying eyes, and makes me feel self-conscious. They do not tell me who they were, and now the younger one is touching me!" I thought and gritted my teeth.

I screamed a battle cry and grabbed the man, flipping him to the ground rigidly, and before he could even tell what happened. He let out a small moan and tried to roll over to get up, but I put my foot on his chest firmly to stop him. "Iwe uri ani?" "Who are you?"  
Now, I demanded an answer from him. He just looked at me with shy eyes and I gave a loud lion roar and pointed my spear towards him. When I was about to knock him out with the butt of my staff, a bat-a-rang hit the wood of my staff and knocked it out of my firm grasp. I swiftly turned around and hissed as loud as I could and exposed my sharp, white teeth. They looked shocked at my actions, well at least the familiar man in green with arrows- Green Arrows? - looked shocked and a little scared. The bat-man didn't really show any emotion, and kind of reminded me of Master Leon. They were either shocked by my animal-like behavior, or good fighting skills, maybe both.

I continued to dodge Batman's attacks and 'rangs as a red blur ran past us, and knocked me off my feet. It was the one who had touched me! He stood by Batman with a large smile on his face. I growled, suddenly wanting to rip the smile off of his jaws. I ran towards him and did a round-house kick to his face. It knocked him down and he passed out unconscious with his jaw starting to turn a sickly purple color. I looked back at the bat-man and started another kick. Against my wishes, the bat-man was able to stop me, grab my ankle and twist it, throwing me back onto my butt. I screeched when I landed on the dirt. "You broke my ankle! You broke it, you... you, monkey-butt!" But, they didn't understand me; they just knew I was angry. And, boy was I angry. I exposed my teeth again and managed to get up once more.  
I stuck out my cat-claws and swung them at the Bat-man and his Fastman. From the corner of my eye, I saw Green Arrows just standing by with a spaced look on his face. Then, the Batman (who was dodging my attempts to scratch him) shouted while throwing a punch to my face. "Arrow, don't just stand there!" Of course, I didn't know what he said then and continued to try to scratch him. A few moments past, and then the Green Arrows drew back his bow and pulled a weird green arrow out of his quiver. He pulled it back and released it, but by that time I had already moved and it hit the ground where I had been standing. I was about to laugh when a strange grey smoke came from the arrow and I covered my mouth with my arm and backflipped out of the way.

When I landed I saw a man I had earlier knocked out, before the men had come, slowly wake and grab his gun. He pointed it at the man with the arrows and fired. It was as if I saw the whole thing in slow motion. Smoke came from the gun and a bullet came out of the large riffle. It flew slowly towards the man wearing green and I felt an urge to run in front of it, and save the familiar man. "Call of the cheetah!" I shouted and ran in front of the projectile. Then, everything went back to its normal speed as it hit me.  
I landed hard on the ground as things started to go black. The Green Arrows was shocked and stood before me. The man in black and armor shouted something before running off after the man who had fired the gun. 

The man with the bow watched him go before turning back towards me. I recoiled as he stepped closer and hesitantly bent beside me. I winced as he applied pressure to my wound with his hands. He murmured things that sounded like he was saying it was going to be okay. And for some reason, I was compelled to say a name that popped into my head. "Oliver?" I said weakly, sounding out each of the syllables. He looked shocked but then smiled at me. It was definitely the weirdest day ever.


	4. Awakening

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The writing of the beginning chapters is a little rough. I wrote them a long time ago, so the writing will get progressively better as the chapters progress.

Run, run, run as fast as you can. The little girl ran as fast as her little legs could. For some reason, she was laughing as she did so. Her little legs were trudging down the dirt ground of my home. The grass was long and made a rustling sound as she struck it away with her hand and ran through it. There was a little tree a couple of yards away from the blonde child and she ran towards it with a small smile on her face. She looked about three years old and I wondered why she was running around in the wild alone. Just then I heard quiet footsteps behind me and I turned around to see a tall man before me. He was walking and looking around, searching for someone. His hair was scruffy and blond and he had equally scruffy stubble on his chin. Still searching as I watched him, I guessed he was about 6.1 feet tall. My curiosity got the better of me and I walked over to the stranger. "Sir, may I help you?" I asked in Shona, but the man totally ignored me, then something strange happened.

When I walked closer to him I placed my hand on his shoulder for him to become aware of my presence. My arm and hand went translucent when it came in contact with his shoulder and it went right through him. I pulled back my hand swiftly and gave a shrill cry that sounded like a pot of tea being boiled on a stove. I was like a ghost, a ghost that couldn't be seen or heard. In a sudden gush of wind, I was behind a tree where the little girl was hiding, and I looked down at her. She was crouched behind the tree, peeping around with a large toothy smile. Her hands were placed delicately on the tree bark and she was trying to be quiet and suppress laughter. She turned around, slid back onto the tree to the ground, and sat with her legs crossed Indian-style. "My little Moyo, come out, come out, I'm going to get you," my ears perked up when I heard the man's words. In one of my dreams, the woman there had called me "my Moyo" which meant "my heart" in the Shona language. Then, my mind clicked and I imagined a little bright light bulb go over my head. That man who was playing with this little five-year-old was the same man who had saved my life in that vision. This little girl, who I hadn't seen before, had very light, almost white, blonde hair and had blue eyes with green around her pupils and irises. They mirrored mine! Was this little girl related to me? Was she my sister, or... maybe me when I was younger? She kind of looked like me, but she, or I, didn't have my burns yet. I shook this off and looked back at the two strangers.

The man was walking over to the tree after hearing the girl give a small giggle. He peeped his head around the tree and faced the girl and said, "Gotcha!" She let out a gasp and faced him. He picked her up and began tickling her. She told him between gasps to stop and he reluctantly did with a large smile on his sculpted face. He walked back to where they had come from with the girl in his hands and I stayed behind the tree watching them. I slowly faded away and awakened in a strange place.

A bright light started to come through and voices were around me. It was like I was in a dark cave with no light, and I couldn't even see my hand in front of my face. All I could see was a bright light and hear the voices. The glow came closer and closer. I couldn't tell what the voices were saying, but I knew it had something to do with me. At first, the light was so intense that my eyes had to shut quickly. I waited a few moments and then tried to open my eyes once more. They fluttered open slowly and the light started to come into vision again. I was starting to see and starting to wake up from my memory.

I woke up in a white room with large white tiles on the floor and the metallic smell of disinfectant and blood was in the air. My eyes drifted across the room to strange machines in one corner, more strange beeping machines in another, and even more strange machines next to my bed. One, I noticed, had a black screen with a zigzag line on it; it beeped every time my heart did. I outstretched my hand to touch the strange device and felt a light tugging on the inside of my arm. My eyes widened in astonishment. There was a tube running into it, one with red liquid and the other with a clear fluid. I was about to pull them out when a voice interrupted me and I wrenched my hand, that was going to pull out the tubes, away. I felt childish, pulling my hand away when caught. What was I, a child? I inwardly reprimanded myself for the action. "How are you feeling?" My eyes widened, I slowly turned my head, and saw a tall man in the doorway a few feet away from me. He was leaning on the wall with a large smile on his face, wore a red spandex suit, and a mask as well. Oh, jeez. I wanted to yell at the man, "he's the one who brought me here, it is his fault! I would still be at home if it were not for him!" My expression changed to anger. My face, tending to get red when I was upset, was already accelerating in heat and I could feel the red coloring enveloping it. My hands turned into fists and I could feel my sharp nails dig into my palm. My knuckles were turning white and I was using all my strength not to pop him in the jaw again. It was only a few seconds (but seemed like minutes to me) until I lost it.

I shouted swear words at the man in what I thought was a language he couldn't understand. But, apparently, he could. "Woah, babe, I didn't know you had such a vocabulary." Alright, that did it! You think that I was on the edge of the cliff before, now I was pushed over. And this time by a cocky boy around my age, with an annoying grin, and soon a dislocated jaw. I felt my eyes switch from my calm blue and green color to bright green catlike eyes, and my animal side took over. Now, don't think I lose my calm whenever I get angry and let my animal side take over and attack random boys, because I don't. This particular boy just had a tendency to do that to me. I flew off my paper-like bed sheets and ran towards him... or at least planned to anyway. I wasn't even a foot away from the bed when I collapsed.

Before I could feel my body fall and hit the cold floor of wherever I was, a red blur ran to me and I felt strong arms wrap themselves along my body. One arm was around my waist hugging me from the floor and the other behind my now throbbing head. I looked up to see the white lenses that covered the eyes of my catcher. He still wore the mask that covered his hair and stopped below his cheekbones. He had that same smile on his face that I had seen the first time I saw him. The floor was a few inches away from me and I could tell if he had been a few milliseconds late I would have surely hit face-first to the tile floor. We stood there for a while until the speedster made it uncomfortable. A goofy smile slowly crept across his lips as he said, "only known you for a couple of days and you're already falling into my arms." I cleared my throat awkwardly and started to get up, but he wouldn't let me go. "Let go!" I shouted and his eyes widened like he forgot he was still holding me. "Oh, yeah, um, right." We slowly got up together and I daintily climbed back into bed, but not before a small groan escaped my lips and I clenched my sides. Now on the bed, with the Fastman beside the bed railing, I felt a sharp pain come from my side; I looked down and saw that my stomach and chest were wrapped up in white cloth-like tape. "So, that is why I fell behind the knees?" I said to myself slowly, forgetting that Fastman could hear me. "Yep, you took a nasty hit protecting G.A." I looked up from my wound at the man and repeated his words. He nodded slowly. "Why'd you do that, anyway?" 

That question I did not want to answer. How was I supposed to anyway? I did not know myself and I looked away from his eyes. Luckily, he realized I either didn't know, or didn't want to, and he left it alone. After a few moments of silence, with my animal sense, I felt another presence enter the room.

I looked over to see a tall green man with an elongated looking head, red eyes, and a costume that consisted of a red "X" on his chest and blue cape and tights. My eyes widened, he was definitely not from the planet Earth. "Oh, hey J'ohnn," the speedster said as he rubbed the back of his head in guilt. I guessed he was not supposed to see me yet, but I kept my eyes on the strange green man. "Hello, Flash you know you were not supposed to see the patient until she was ready and awake," the green man, who had been called J'ohnn, said as he reprimanded the young man. The speedster nodded as he talked to J'ohnn and told him that he had heard I was awake and just had to see me. The man nodded and looked back at me, "You have had many injuries, you are lucky we brought you here. You had a great loss of blood, a few recently broken ribs, a fractured ankle, a concussion, and a gunshot wound in the upper abdomen. But, strangely enough, they have already mostly healed, except the gunshot wound, of course. We had to operate to get out the bullet. Just have no strenuous activity and you should be fully recovered in a few days." He had a strange foreign accent and little emotion. There was something alien about him, but I shrugged it off as he walked away from me. That wasn't what was the strangest about him. Instead of using the door, he disappeared into the wall! The wall, for goodness sake! And I thought my abilities were weird.

I heard a laugh come beside me at my expression. I yanked my head away from the wall the man had disappeared from and stared at the laugher. I gave a slow, deep warning growl and furrowed my eyebrows, warning the Fastman not to tempt me. He abruptly stopped and put his hands up, "Sorry, I won't laugh, even though it was pretty funny." He gave emphasis on the pretty and spit out the "t" symbols. "I don't want you to pop-out my jaw again," I gave a short laugh at that. "So, I did dislocate his jaw. Good, that is what he gets." I thought. "It's not funny! Bats had to put it back in, and it hurt. You're just lucky I have super-speed healing like you do." I would have been shocked at the fact he had one of the same powers I had, laughed at the detail that I caused him more pain, and wanted to know who "Bats" was. But, it wasn't time for that. It was time for serious questions.

"Who are you, and why do you identify with me? You couldn't recognize my language during our battle, and I couldn't understand you. So, why now?" The Fastman's smile disappeared for a second at the flurry of questions. "You don't know who I am?" I nodded my head no. "But, how could you not know me. I'm the fastest man alive, not to mention the cutest, wittiest, best-looking guy in the whole Justice League. How could you not..." He stopped as I growled at him and gave him another fierce look. I was not appreciating him not getting to the point. "I'm the Flash, the scarlet speedster, the crimson comet. How have you not heard of me before?" I shrugged my shoulders. "Oh yeah," he said, "lived in the wilderness of Zimbabwe, of course."

He later told me everything I wanted to know. Apparently, some girl named Zatanna put a spell on me so I can understand English and others can understand me. At first, I didn't like the idea that I couldn't speak my native language anymore, but the Fastman told me that I could as long as I focused. "Kind of like a second language," were his words? He had also told me that they brought me here, at the Watchtower- what is a "Watchtower" anyway? The Watchtower was a floating space station that held a large number of support staff, and the "superheroes" -as they were called- had a large kitchen, meeting facilities, boarding rooms, and a cafeteria, and a medical bay, which I was now in. Anyway, they had brought me here to gain information on me. 

During the stories and questions I had inclined against my pillow and was now peacefully listening to the one known as Flash, which I guessed was not his real name, but I didn't bother with asking him for his real name. But, when I heard that the people I had fought had just taken me to gain information I jumped up from my position. I used my elbows to prop myself up so that I was closer to the speedster, who was now sitting in a chair by my bed. "But, you have not taken interest in me before! Or my people, or anything! So, you just saved my life for information. Is that it? I knew it, the lionesses were right, you cannot trust a human!" I don't even know what I said after that, and I didn't care. I was too upset to care. I continued to rant on and on, my anger bubbling up at the 22-year-old as I told him all the problems in Africa and the animals that lived there.

I felt tears start to sting my eyes, but I was not going to let the Flash see them. They would just show him I was weak. And Master Leon told me to never show weakness; especially to someone you do not know. I buried my head into the pillow. Never feeling like this before, I hated every minute of it. My shoulders began to shake with a mixture of anger and unhappiness. "You do not care about me; all you care is for your stupid information," I said into my pillow. I felt the presence in the medical room grow tense and I heard small movement beside me. A gloved hand reached my shoulder gently and squeezed it. "No, no," he whispered smoothly, trying to calm me down. "Yeah, we took you to the Watchtower for information, but that is not the only reason. We also took you to save your life. You had major blood loss and a gunshot wound. If we hadn't teleported you here with us, you could have died." He said the last part very quietly and I lifted my head from the pillow. "Really?" I mumbled as I brushed my tears away.

He nodded proudly and put his hands on his hips. "Of course, we're the JLA we do that."  
"Who?" His smile quickly disappeared and his arms fell back to his side. "You don't know?! The JLA..." I nodded my head no again. "The coolest group of superheroes in the world that work together to fight bad guy butt, you know, the Justice League of America." I nodded another no again and smiled at the male's disbelieve and overreaction. Then, he nodded his disapproval and closed his eyes, before opening them again. "Oh, yeah, raised by a group of wild dogs in Africa." He teased and I punched his shoulder playfully with my hand that wasn't stuck with needles. "Lions!" I said. "Oh, right, wild dog lions," I growled again, but the threat was quickly deflated when a smile and slight giggle escaped my lips when Fastman stuck his tongue out at me. "Oh, so she smiles and laughs, impressive." I punched him again and he let out an over-dramatic "ow." But, the happy mood quickly diminished when I said, "I have to go home. I can't just stay here." It was almost a whisper, but he still heard me. He continued to persist and somehow I agreed to stay... at least until I was fully healed from my injuries.

"And maybe join the team? We could definitely use someone like you." I looked at him shocked. "He wants me, a girl he, the Batman, and Green Arrows just rescued from the wilderness of Zimbabwe to join their Team?" I thought over this and after much consideration, I realized that there must be an ulterior motive for why he wanted me to join the JLA, as he called it. "You want me to join the Justice League of America?" I asked. He paused for a moment in thought before answering my question. "Well not exactly, we have a branch within the Justice League, the Young Justice, which you'll be working with." I didn't even have to ask what the Young Justice was; he could tell I didn't know who they were by the look I gave him. "They're like the Justice League, just younger superheroes, about your age and younger. If you work hard enough and get more experience you can kind of 'graduate' to the big boys." Flash also told me of how many of the YJ had done that, including the girl who put the spell on me- Zatanna was her name- and Rocket, and even the Flash himself, who had earlier been called Kid Flash. He kept persisting on me joining, and before I could give an answer I heard the door he had earlier been leaning on slide open with a "whoosh" sound.

A woman I had not seen before walked into the room. She was wearing green scrubs and a red cross on her hat, signifying she was with the medical unit at the Watchtower. She didn't look like a superhuman, just a regular person. "Miss," she said, "I'm Sadie, I'm going to help you with your bandages." The woman looked kind and had a copper tent to her brown hair. Her hair looked like it had been tied up tight in a bun, but a few pieces of hair were already beginning to fall out of their proper position. I listened to her talk and guessed that she was around 30 years old. She turned her head from me and looked at the grinning Flash. "It seems he is always grinning," I thought and shook my head lightly at the thought. "Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to leave," he didn't change his large smile and continued to gaze at me. He just didn't get what the nurse was saying. Sadie gave out a huff of impatient air. "... because the patient will have to undress in order for me to get to the wound and re-bandage it." Ok, now he got it.

He stood up from his chair and the smile briefly disappeared. He was halfway to the door before he turned around and shouted towards me. "Hey, I never caught your name." I thought for a moment. He wanted to know my name? It was weird hearing someone ever ask for my name; actually no one really ever called me by my name. Well, with the exception of Ellie, of course. Dindingwe, Monkey, Gina, and Leon (if they ever used a name for me) would always just call me "child," nothing else. I looked back at the red-suited man and spoke. "Why do you want to know my name?" I asked. He looked at me as if it was a stupid question.

"Because, since you already know mine, I should at least know yours. I can't tell who you are with that mask you are wearing." When he mentioned my mask I touched my face. I felt the still soft fur of my mask and smiled. After all these years, it still had the softness it did when I got it. But, I was confused. That's funny. Didn't Master Leon and Dindingwe say that whenever someone would have the chance they would remove it to see what I was hiding? I thought this to myself and my smile returned again. Maybe, just maybe, they were different, yes? Ok, now I will tell him my name. I did owe him that for him and his friend saving my life didn't I?

"My name is Delmira, Delmira Najia," I said and saw the smile creep back onto his face. "That's pretty, what does it mean?" I was shocked. "Did he just say my name was pretty?" I asked myself as I looked down at my hands. I saw the burned part of them and frowned. I was glad the nurse had asked him to leave. Although he strangely comforted me, I didn't want my new friend seeing how burned I was. I could already tell he was one for blabbing on and on, and once he saw my burns I wouldn't hear the end of it. The arm that was burned the most had been covered by the blanket I was under and I was glad for that. Out of all my limbs, it was the worst one burned, well one of them. I sighed; I really wished that I remembered how I got them. My only clues were the dreams I had been having, but how reliable could those be, right? I didn't remember any of my past before I started living with the lions and training to be a protector. Well, almost everything. Somehow I still remembered my name. Well, except for the last part of it, which was the most important part of finding out who my parents were. But, for some reason, at that moment, I didn't want to know who they were.

"Delmira, it means the noble protector, and Najia means escape from danger or safe-haven." His smile widened as he said, "That's really cool Delmira, I wish I had an awesome name like that," I smiled. "Thanks, my parents wanted my name to mean something important." Woah, did that just come out of my mouth? The Flash continued to walk out the door and waved his hand behind him. "Well, see you around Delmira."

I gave a smile and laughed inwardly at myself as the nurse removed the tubes and wiring from my body. I never really smiled before when I was living with the lionesses. Don't get me wrong, the lionesses always seemed to smile and have a good time, but they never really liked me. But, they never really hated my either, Master Leon had made sure of that. I could tell even as a child, that they didn't like me very much. From time to time I could see them giving me dirty looks and laughing at me when I messed up. As I got older I went on hunts with them. And every once in a while they would purposely sabotage my hunt so I would mess up and ultimately get hurt. I remember one time, a couple of months after I had started hunting with them- before I had gotten my cheetah mask- that they had played one of their tricks on me.

It was one of the hottest days I remember during my time living with Master Leon and his lionesses. I never really saw Leon unless I was training with him, but I somehow always knew he was watching me. It was October, so the air was dry and we got very little rain. And little rain equaled little food, some nights we were lucky if we even got a small boar to eat. Of course, I never ate the meat anyway, and the lionesses made fun of me for that. "She's a little plant-eater. She's never going to be like us." They said. They made fun of me, told me since I didn't eat meat I was just a walking tree. "Little Stick" they called me.

We were creeping along a dry path, hiding behind trees to try to go unseen if there was an animal out there. I was trying really hard to make my foot-steps quiet like the other girls, but it was harder when you were a "two-walker." The area we were in was very dry and the trees were shriveled looking and burnt. I guessed there had been a fire recently. As I was looking around I didn't notice a twig next to my foot and when I continued walking I stepped on it. It made a light crunching noise under my foot, but it was loud enough for me to get scolded by one of the older lionesses. Just as I looked back away from her and to where I was walking I saw that one of the younger lionesses, Lea, had spotted a stray boar and was stalking it quietly. It looked like it was hurt and I let out a small moan at the scene. Of course, I was careful not to let the other ones hear me. I had already been given the speech of the stupid "Circle of Life." There was a small clearing where the boar was limping. The oldest lioness, Clara, gave us a nod and we executed the attack plan. When I started to do my part Sierra went up to me and whispered, "Hey, you wanna prove yourself, don't you?" I nodded. Of course, I did. Sierra began telling me a plan on how to prove myself and get the other lionesses and Master Lion to like me. The next thing I remember is me being on the ground and the boar gone. I had banged my head pretty good and heard the lionesses laughing at me. Just then I stopped hearing their laughter and felt a large body come before me. I was on the ground in the position of a dead bug on its back and I looked up. Master Leon was looking down at me and asked, "Are you okay, child?" I nodded and he turned back to the now quiet lionesses. "You idiot females! Do you not know what you have done? We will again go hungry; head back to the cave and stay quiet. NOW!" With that, the girls headed back in a single file with unemotional faces.

Leon gave a disapproved nod when he looked back at me and walked away. When we reached back to the cave it was dark. The lionesses slept in a circle around Master Leon, while I was in the corner near the hard, dusty wall. (it was like the Lion King cave if you were wondering) I was ashamed of myself, falling for a trick like that, and I was pretty sure Master Leon was ashamed of me too. I wrapped my arms around my chest and pulled my knees towards me. After a while, I lifted my head away from my knees and felt something wet fall onto them. Of course, I was crying! I wiped my eyes with the back of my arm and sniffled. I heard footsteps by me and I looked around. Dindingwe was walking with refinement towards me and her tail was swinging. 

"What is wrong, child?" She asked and I gave a sob. "I am fine." But, Dindingwe didn't believe me. She seemed to always know when I was lying to her. She sat down next to me and somehow got me to tell her everything that was wrong. "They hate me! They tease me." I cried as I leaned into the cheetah's spongy fur. "Shhhh, it's okay." She kept repeating as she tried to comfort me. "I do not belong here, I am useless, a mere nuisance." Dindingwe moved away from me and made me look into her warm brown eyes.

"You are not useless, my child. Although you do not see it now, you will do very great things, things that will help not only the animals of Africa but also of the people of the world. Do you understand me?" I nodded and then turned away from her, and looked back at the sleeping lionesses. "But, the lioness..." I didn't have to complete my sentence for the female cheetah to know what I was saying. "The lionesses do not know you as I do. I have seen what you do, what you have been through. You are not like any other human I have seen before. You care for the welfare fare of others and are willing to put your life on the line for others." I smiled and nodded at Dindingwe, showing her I understood. She smiled and walked back out of the cave through the shadows.

The nurse finished her work and re-wrapped my bandages on my chest. I soon fell asleep remembering all the times Dindingwe made me feel better with her kind words and warm hugs. I would never feel out of place with the lions or other animals again. But, I still never showed anyone what my face really looked like. I never took off my mask in front of others. I slowly fell back asleep again to the sound of the ticking clock.


	5. New Intel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I know I promised to update every Friday, and then that just never happened. I'm really sorry about that. I will seek to do better. Please let me know your thoughts about this chapter in a comment below. And thank you so much to everyone who's reading.

New Intel  
Wally, also known as the Flash, walked away with a small smile on his face. He had just talked to probably one of the cutest girls he had ever seen. Well, one of them anyway, but not number one. He was about to speed away to go to his favorite room in the whole Watchtower, the kitchen, when he saw a familiar green clothed man. Flash's smile disappeared. The man was leaning on the wall closest to the door and pushed himself off with his boot as Flash continued his journey. The man in green jogged up to the Flash and looked over at him. 

"So..." Flash didn't respond to the man's attempt to start a conversation, and continued his fast walking. 

"Did you learn anything?" Green Arrow asked and the Flash turned his head to look at the archer. 

"Why do you care?" he asked with a sharp tongue. Green Arrow blocked his saunter by putting his arm in front of Flash. 

"What is that supposed to mean?" Green Arrow's eyebrows knitted together in confusion and his body became tense. He didn't like the way the younger hero was talking to him. He'd had enough of teenager tantrums during his partnership with Speedy... (Scratch that) Red Arrow, and didn't want more with this red hero. Flash gave out a gruff sound as if GA's question was brainless. He stiffened his shoulders and looked down at the slightly shorter hero. 

"Well, one thing I learned is that she wants to go home, of course she can't do that because she's stuck in a billion dollar super hero powered space-ship in the sky! Or did you forget that?" Flash's voice was slowly escalading with the explanation and other heroes who were in the passage started to turn around and stare.

Green Arrow roughly yanked on the speedster's arm and pulled him to the side. 

"Alright," the archer said in a fatherly tone. "What's going on?" 

The Flash's body stopped shaking and let out a breath of air. At this, GA let go of his arm. 

"Look, I know you're still upset about Artemis'..." The archer stopped when Flash looked away at the thought of what happened to the love of his life. Green Arrow let out a sigh. He also missed his former side-kick, who he'd helped join the Team. 

He continued, "But this is no way to handle this. Blowing up at every little thing isn't good for you. Arty wouldn't have wanted this." The two heroes' eyes softened and the scarlet speedster looked up and nodded his head in fierce determination. "Besides, I didn't want to kidnap that girl anyway, especially the way we did, but it looked like if we hadn't showed up she would have died from heat exhaustion or something worse. We were just taking orders from Batman." Green Arrow walked away a little before he turned back around and smiled. "Besides, I'm excited to see what she knows." He was about to turn back around before he remembered something again. "Oh, speaking of Batman, he called for a meeting in the conference room, better hurry up. He doesn't like when you're late." Flash smiled and sped away in the opposite direction to meet with the dark hero.

***  
"I can't believe I'm late, again. Bats is gonna kill me!" The Flash yelled to himself as he sped down the hallway. He ignored the yells and curses from the other heroes for making the large winds in the hallway. He screeched to a stop and slowly walked up to the conference room where the other original eight would meet. The door made an awkward squeak and he poked his head through to see Batman and Green Arrow waiting expectantly. He closed the door and sat down beside Green Arrow. 

"Why are you late again, Flash?" Batman asked with a stern look as if he was about to slap Flash for being late again. Flash looked down at his hands and stumbled for words at what to say. Hey, it's pretty hard to think of an answer when the best interrogator in history was glaring at you. 

"I, um, went to the cafeteria... and got hungry, so..." The Flash was about to continue but Batman interrupted his struggle to talk and continued with the meeting. He was talking of what happened when they met her, what went wrong, what went right, etcetera, but Flash didn't pay attention until he heard Batman ask him a question. 

"What did you learn from the suspect?" Flash yanked his head towards Batman and got a little upset. 

"Well, first of all, her name isn't 'suspect' it's Delmira. Second of all, I didn't really learn anything. You seem to forget I don't interrogate hospital patients like you do." The Flash folded his arms together and leaned back against the chair. After a few minutes he continued, realizing the Dark Knight wasn't fazed by his comment. "I learned her name is Delmira Najia. Delmira, it means the noble protector, and Najia means escape from danger, or safe-haven. She said her parents wanted her name to mean something. But, by the way she was talking, I don't think she knew, or remembered, much of anything about them. She was also raised in the wild of Africa, it seems, most of her life." 

Batman nodded his head and turned to Green Arrow who had been listening keenly to the conversation. 

"Is there anything that comes to mind about your brother and his wife's disappearance that would relate to that?" Green Arrow thought for a moment and rubbed his hand through his beard, thinking. After a while he stopped and leaned his elbows on the table.

"Well, they left to help with the animal poaching and deforestation in Africa, but I never heard anything about a girl." Batman nodded and turned back to the screen.  
"How long ago was that?" Batman asked gruffly as he moved things around in the large computer screen on the wall. GA's eyes widened in realization and he leaned up in his chair.  
"I'd say about twenty years ago. Flash, how old do you think that girl is?"  
Flash was about to reply when the door slammed open. There was Kid Flash standing in the door way with a joyful look on his face. Batman turned around and was about to reprimand the boy for his intrusion when the young speedster began shouting quickly. 

"I'm sorry for interrupting, but Wally... um, I mean Flash," Bart turned to Flash. "Nightwing's back!" 

A smile popped up from both speedsters' faces and they sped out of the room. This left a confused Green Arrow and irritated Batman in the conference room. Flash knew that Batman was upset for him leaving, but he didn't care. He was too excited to see his old friend again. Batman could give him a speech about not leaving during a meeting later.

***  
Everything went by in a blur of colors and capes as Flash flew by next to Bart to reach the Young Justice unit of the Justice League. It had been months since Flash had seen or heard of what Nightwing had been up to. He was still in Blüdhaven for all Flash knew. After they had defeated the Reach and located Flash Nightwing all but disappeared. Flash's thoughts screeched to a stop when he and Kid Flash arrived at the large doors of Flash's old team. Kid Flash and Flash bluntly stopped and their feet stood firmly on the floor while their bodies rocked to and fro trying to balance themselves with the lower speed. Once steady, Flash pushed open the doors with Bart at his heels, it seemed the whole team was there welcoming their old leader. As Flash and Bart started to walk towards Nightwing the older speedster noticed some different things about the former Boy Wonder. His hair had gotten longer again. It now arrived at the tips of his shoulders and even though Nightwing had on a domino mask Flash noticed his eyes were different too. They no longer held the childish mischief they had months before. As Nightwing had gotten older he had gotten less and less immature. When he was Robin his eyes had held so much mischief, so much joy, but now, his eyes held nothing close to juvenile. The dark, blue orbs were focused now, serious, powerful, and with more experience behind them. 

Flash's broad smile appeared and he thought to himself, "I guess that's what comes with the job when in the Bat family, cleaning out Gotham's streets."

Everyone was crowded around the first Boy Wonder, bombarding him with questions of his journey while on leave. He happily complied, trying to answer everyone's questions the best he could. As Flash and Kid Flash walked closer eyes started to settle on them. The younger heroes of the Justice League began parting for the older Speedster, and a small smile crept on his face. Ever since Flash became an official member of the Justice League, and a founding member, to that, most began looking up to him. Well, at least, most of the members younger than him that were part of the Young Justice did. The others who had been part of the JLA longer than him, or were older, just thought that he was an immature speedster who took Barry Allen's place. Sometimes it still bothered Flash that they thought that, but he kept smiling. He knew he was a valuable member, and he didn't have to prove that to anyone. He'd get his chance.

Flash entered the crowd of younger superheroes and put his red gloved hand on Nightwing's shoulder, welcoming him. Nightwing acknowledged it with a smile and nod. 

"So, why'd you decide to come back?" Flash asked, noticing the smug smile on Nightwing's face disappear. Nightwing waited a while before his eyes widened with an answer. 

"I just missed the gang, that's all." Flash dropped his hand from his friend's shoulder and took a step back. 

"Okay. But couldn't you have come back earlier?" The speedster asked his best friend. There was another pause before Nightwing answered. 

"Just busy cleaning up the streets of Gotham." Flash didn't buy it. He could tell that that wasn't the real answer, but he wouldn't push it. Right now was a time for a celebration of the re-uniting of one of the original members and the team.

After about two hours of celebrating, people began to disperse and the party slowly ended. After a while only Aqualad, Superboy, M'Gann, Nightwing, and Flash were left and the room was quiet. The only sound was Flash munching on probably the sixth bag of Cheetos he had had that night. Aqualad stood up and looked around the room. 

"It is late now, and we have a long day tomorrow. Get some sleep." With that the Atlantean leader left the room with the electronic door swooshing closed behind him. After a few minutes Nightwing got up from the couch he was lounging on and stood up, stretching his arms. 

"Well, it's late and I have to get back to Blüdhaven. I've got class to go to tomorrow." And with that Nightwing left the room the same way Aqualad had moments before. After a few more minutes Flash pushed off of the wall he'd been leaning on and walked outside of the room. He crumbled up the now empty Cheetos bag and threw it over his shoulder into a trashcan nearby.

Flash walked a little while down the corridor in the direction of Delmira's medical bay room. As Flash neared the room he saw a man watching Delmira sleep in her hospital like bed. Flash began to walk quicker, he didn't like the way the dark haired man was watching her. As Flash reached the man he realized who it was. 

"I thought you had school tomorrow." Flash questioned the raven haired man, but he didn't turn around and just remained facing Delmira and didn't respond. Flash stood next to him and faced Delmira's window. "Now tell me the truth. I know that wasn't what you were doing in Blüdhaven." After a few moments the man sighed and looked back at Flash. 

"How'd you get that?" He asked still not answering Flash's question. It was always like Nightwing to not answer the questions, but just ask for more. 

"Dude, I always know when you're lying." Nightwing raised an eyebrow under his mask. Obviously he didn't believe that. The intense glare was starting to bug the scarlet speedster and Flash awkwardly switched from foot to foot. A deep constricting feeling was starting to form in the bottom of his throat and Flash caved into the pressure.

"Okay! Jeez the Night-glare is worse than the Bat-glare. You mentioned cleaning up Gotham, but you 'work' in Blüdhaven." Flash raised his red gloved hand and put quotes around the word "work.”

Nightwing chuckled. "Alright, alright, you caught me."

He frowned and turned back to the window. 

"During my time from the team I had started to hear in one of my classes that a girl had recently popped out of nowhere and was now protecting the wild animals from poachers and illegal loggers. At first I thought it was just a girl trying to play hero, but that was until I heard that the animals around her area had started to act weird and that the girl had super human abilities. That's when I started to investigate. Flash..." Nightwing stopped and looked over at Flash for the speedster's attention. 

"Flash, she's Green Arrow's niece... his real one." Flash was exasperated, but somehow he expected this. In a way the girl looked just like Oliver, was around the age his niece would be, and lived in the same area Green Arrow's brother and sister-in-law disappeared. All arrows were green and pointing right at her... literally. 

Nightwing then asked Flash to tell him everything he knew about the girl. 

"Well, her name is Delmira Najia, she doesn't remember much of anything about her family, she was raised by animals, and that's about it." 

Nightwing continued to look at Flash, showing that he didn't believe that that was all Flash knew about her. Flash might be impatient and headstrong, but he is one of the best people in gathering information from his surroundings.

Flash let out a breath of air and slumped his shoulders in defeat. "Ok, fine. Let's see..." Flash looked up for a moment and folded his strong arms in thought. After a few moments Flash snapped his fingers, looked at Nightwing, and smiled. 

"She's about 5'8, has long golden hair and the most amazing eyes. They're a bright crystal blue with the lightest lime green in the middle and on the edges. Oh! And when she smiles it's like they light up. And her teeth, oh man, their like pearls, and her canines are sharper than ours, I guess it's part of her animal adaptations, but still. And she has quite the temper when angry, I thought she has going to dislocate my jaw again, I think I even saw her eyes flash to a cat-like version of her human eyes. That's about all I could tell since she still had her mask on. Oh, and it seems she has trouble with her dreams and doesn't trust humans very much, which is understandable considering where and how she was raised. But, when I was watching her through the window she was trembling in her bed when she was sleeping, even shouting "Moyo" in her sleep, whatever that means. And, that's about it." 

Nightwing nodded bluntly and had a look of determination on his face. He was probably eager to get back home and look into this with the new intel.  
"Flash, there is something up with her, I want you to keep an eye on her, and make sure she doesn't get hurt."

Flash was going to do that anyway, but he didn't get why his old time friend from the original team was telling him this. Why was this girl so important to Nightwing that he needed Flash to watch over her? Delmira was tough; she was the last person Flash could imagine needing help. As Nightwing turned to leave, Flash grabbed his arm. Nightwing turned a little and looked at the arm Flash was still holding and the speedster let go. 

"Flash, I want you to make sure she's safe. Don't let her get hurt, she's a vital part to finding out why Green Arrow's brother and wife disappeared years ago and there are reasons to believe she was a key to why the wild animals were acting weird in Africa." Nightwing began to walk away when Flash stopped him again.

"Are you sure that's the only reason you want to keep her safe?" He said and Nightwing stopped in his tracks a few feet away. But, he didn't turn around and just walked away to the Zeta-tubes and back to Blüdhaven.

Flash turned back around to the window to watch the mystery girl as her chest fell and rose in a calming motion. Her hair was messed around her peaceful, almost golden face, and she was resting with her back to the bed. The blanket only came to the middle of her stomach. Flash pressed his nose closer to the glass window and saw something he hadn't noticed about her before. Right below the sleeve of her hospital gown on her right arm was a mark that was lighter than the rest of her tan skin. The skin looked disintegrated and was misshapen. It was a burn mark! Flash gasped, and stumbled back a little bit. 

"How have I not noticed this before?" Flash asked himself and began to get angry. He looked closer, burns were all over her!

"Has she always had that? Did she get that earlier, while we were fighting?" As more and more questions swam through 22 year old Flash's head he got angrier and angrier. How could he have not noticed this before? Flash pounded on the small ledge of the window and felt it shake a little with the impact. He put both his elbows down and rested on the ledge with his head between his strong, gloved arms. 

All of the sudden his anger disappeared and he looked up at the sleeping Delmira. "Artemis..." He whispered and a small half smile crept across his lips. Arty always said he had a slight temper problem and teased him, but she never bothered him about it. She had known why, it was because of his past and his abusive father. 

"Artemis, I don't know what to do, I need your help." A single tear fell from under Flash's mask and he wiped it away slowly and his body began to shake. Flash stood up from his spot, sniffled, and took a deep breath. 

When he started to walk away, he said quietly, "I wasn't able to save Artemis, but now, I'll do anything in my power to make up for that. I'll use everything in my power to protect Delmira from whatever the world throws at her."


	6. Mystery Man

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Delmira meets a new, mysterious ally.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A special thank you to Nroses for being my first comment! Thank you so much.

When I woke up that morning I wasn’t in the best of moods. Whatever medicine they had given me the day before had worn off and I was now at the highest awareness. Oh, and I didn’t like where I was. When I realized what had happened the day before and that I was away from my home I started thrashing and screaming swears at anyone who came at me. I was not happy and wanted to be home. A group of male nurses rushed inside the room with worried looks and quickly ran to my bedside to sedate me.   
“Don’t touch me! Don’t touch me! Don’t touch me... let me go!” I screamed as I grabbed the closest male nurse-who was currently trying to take my blood- by the collar. “I want out! Get me back NOW!” I shouted and thrashed around, making the medical bay cot shake around like there was an earthquake. I grabbed the safety rails on the edge and tried to get up, but the nurses pushed me down again.   
“Acha!” I seethed, but they didn’t stop. As I felt my eyes shift from a human look to cat-like a large red blur ran past me creating a strong breeze and making my hair blow to the side in a flurry. My eyes widened as I heard a screech and looked from the nurses to a familiar red-suited man standing next to them with large eyes. Well, large white lenses actually, he still wore the pesky mask I have always seen him wear. My mouth opened to show my large pearl white canines to him in a growl. I could tell it scared him at first, probably because I had seemed open to him the day before and because my canines were so sharp they almost looked like a cat’s, especially considering how angry I was right now. He looked at the male nurses with a questioning look, and the one closest to him spoke.   
“She won’t take the medication we’re trying to give to her.” He stated simply as they tried to tie down the restraints by the bed.   
I turned to Flash and my eyes softened. “Please, don’t make me take those. I am not so attentive when I take them,” I tried to give him my best “puppy dog eyes” and softened them so they returned to their normal blue and green. My rose-colored lips slowly turned shape, pulling the ends downward in a small frown. Of course, that didn’t last long when he replied.   
“I don-know babe, maybe you should take your medicine. It’ll make you less irritable.” He smiled as he crossed his large arms that were covered with the elastic cloth of his suit. He looked kind or attractive when he stood by me with his strong arms crossed and a small smirk on his face. Wait a second… WHAT?!   
“What do you mean, ‘less irritable’?” I scream questioned as the nurses stopped what they were doing and looked at the battle that would soon ensue.   
I don’t remember the next remark, but, I do remember it angered me. I whipped around in the bed again like before and was again screaming at the nurses to let me go. Of course, they didn’t. I was cat-hissing again and my eyes had turned, once again, to the look of that of a cat. “Come on babe, calm down!” The speed-man attempted and my head wrenched to look at him sternly.   
“What!” I hissed and Flash soon regretted it. I jumped up in the bed and reached over to Flash with sharpened nails. Flash “flashed” into a different spot a few feet away from me and my bed. This continued for a while until Flash started to get tired. When he started to huff and puff he decided to try a different approach to calming me. He slowly crept up to me at the head of the medical bay bed. And, when I say slowly, I mean slowly. For the “fastest man alive” -as he called himself- he could move really slowly. He got closer to me and my body tensed; whatever he was trying to do, I didn’t like it. He was now next to me and reached out his muscular arms to envelope me in a hug. At first, it was nice, having a new sense of warmth around me. Even though I was under the covers it was still cold. I was used to it being almost ninety degrees at home and a cool, air-conditioned, 75, was not comfortable for me. I pulled my arms close to me and bent them so that my soft hands were lightly drenched across his strong chest. It was nice and comfortable. I could never do this with the other members of my pride, or my friends.  
I silently rested my head below his chin and a small sigh escaped my lips. Even though I couldn’t see his face, I felt him smile above me at that. But, I didn’t care. Overall, it was nice, comfortable, and gave me a warm sensation in my chest that made me want to stay like that forever. Of course, like everything else with the Flash, it didn’t last long. I felt one of his arms that were drenched around my waist and back leave and reach over to a table by the bed. At first, I didn’t think anything of it, until I felt a small metal object near me. I looked up from his chest and saw him holding a needle with the liquid the nurses were trying to give me earlier. I tried to snatch it out of his hand, but it didn’t work. He was the Flash after all, and even for my cat-like reflexes, he was too fast for me. My eyes flashed a little when he moved instantaneously from me to a different spot some feet away. He still held the hypodermic needle with his pointer finger through the loop on the flange piece and his thumb at the end. He crept closer to me with an uncanny, lopsided smile on his molded face. He smiled and said, “Grab her arms.” My eyes widened and I clenched my hands together to make fists. I was ready to put up a fight. After growing up my whole life in the wilderness of Africa, I wasn’t fond of things I wasn’t used to. And, I was not used to getting injected with a strange liquid that made me act differently. The bulky looking male nurses- probably sent when a meta-human like me didn’t want to take her shots- jumped next to me and grabbed my wrists and ankles. There were two on each of my limbs, besides my head, but they still were having a hard time controlling me. Thank you, animal strength!  
Anyway, as they were holding me down I started seething and spitting at them, shouting curse words in Swahili. Of course, due to Zatanna’s spell, a few American cuss words probably escaped my tongue. I kicked and flailed my arms and legs, but nothing worked. As I was doing this I didn’t realize that a dark figure in blue and black spandex had entered the medical bay room where I was. Flash got closer to me and put his hand behind my head. When he leaned closer to me and put his free arm on my shoulder to inject the medicine I did something he didn’t expect. I head-butted him and bit into his forearm with my cat-fangs. He stumbled back and whispered something inaudible, clutching his arms with the hypodermic needle still in hand. As I continued throwing a fit I heard a deep monotone voice chime in with a laugh.   
“Now, Wally, you know that’s no way to treat a lady.”   
The voice snickered. I slowly tore my eyes away from the gleaming needle to where the source of the voice was. There, standing by the doorway was a man, about my age, with dark, shaggy night-black hair and a mysterious smirk.  
“Lion’s roar, did he just smirk?” I thought to myself. Of course, my thoughts quickly turned back to the needle that was pointed at me. I let out a low, threatening growl. I didn’t like so many people being so close to me at one time. I was just starting to get used to being with people period. I looked at Smirky and gave a beseeching look towards him. He sighed and sauntered over to the bed where I and the frozen Flash were.   
He placed one of his gloved hands on my arm that had been held for the shot. He looked down at it sadly and then back at Flash. His features hardened and he squinted his eyes in a slight scowl.   
“Wally, if she doesn’t want to take the shot she doesn’t have to.” Flash looked from Smirky to me. He sighed and took a step back. Whoa, did Smirky just defend me? I was baffled and looked down at my now unclenched hands in confusion. I looked away when I saw some of the burnt parts of my hands. When I was starting to zone out I felt subtle warmth enclose around my left hand. I turned my head and saw the mysterious man’s hand holding mine. His glove was gone and I noticed a few things I had not picked up before. His hands were large and strong with calluses on the palms. I pulled my hand away slowly, unsure if this was an intimate gesture for humans. His hands showed me he worked with his hands like he’d been using them with his work for years. I remember my father had always said that you could tell a lot about someone by the details of their hands. And, by seeing his hands I could tell this mystery man was a strong, hard worker. The man cleared his throat and I looked up at him.   
“Flash told me you’d be staying here as a member of the Justice League for a while.” I nodded. “Well, seeing you’re better, we’ve made a room for you to stay in… seeing you can’t stay in the medical bay since you’re no longer ill.” He stopped and looked back at the Flash.   
Then, to me, he said, “If you’ll come with me, I’ll take you to your room.” Smirky let go of my hand and started to walk away from me towards the entrance. When I didn’t move he looked over his shoulder, and the lenses of his black domino mask narrowed and he smirked again.   
“Coming?” He simply asked and I tried to get up from the bed.   
Of course, like the last time I got up, I fell. I wasn’t as close to the ground as I had been last time, but I could still tell it had been a close call. I leaned my chin up to see the face of the person who caught me. This time, Flash wasn’t the one who caught me. It was the dark-haired man. One of his arms was around my back, the other delicately placed behind my ear where my mask ended. I felt his masked eyes desirously stare into my blue eyes with the vibrant green encircling them. Smirky started to lean into me and slowly pull me closer. His hair slightly fell into his face from that titled angle and perfectly complimented his chiseled face and strong outlined jaw. For some reason, something was pulling me to lean closer too, closer to his handsome face.   
But, all of a sudden I was lifted and was back on my feet again. I grabbed my head in nausea at the sudden change in position. After I got my bearings I looked back at Smirky. He was looking down at the floor with uncertainty etched across his features and I placed my unburned hand on his shoulder. Through this whole meeting, I had not seen him like this, so uncertain. He looked back at me and it got quiet.   
“Why don’t I introduce you to your new room?” He said this a little loud, but I smiled and nodded.   
We began walking to the exit and I stole a glance at the man who had, in a sense, rescued me. His face was stern and chiseled, with a strong set jaw, and long shaggy hair that reached the nape of his neck and stopped where his shoulders started to jut out. Smirky somehow noticed I was studying him and looked back at me. I swiftly hid my face from his gazing eyes and looked down at my fumbling hands. Then I saw him smirk through my peripheral vision.   
As we continued to walk down the hallway I resorted to looking feebly around my surroundings to avoid the guy’s gaze. The hallway was not at all the warm, friendly, natural environment I was used to. The hallway was gray and had metal everywhere. The tiles on the ground were metal, the doors to the rooms were metal, and the ceiling was metal. My face saddened and I began to frown.  
“Is a nice plant or two and some dirt really that hard to ask?” Somehow Mr. Mysterious noticed me looking around and a quiet sound escaped his lips. I jerked my head towards him and slightly bared my teeth in annoyance. Again the man-made the sound and I realized he was laughing at me. “What?” I asked with a sharp tongue. He looked slightly down at me and gave his signature leer.   
“First time in the Watchtower takes you back a little, I know from experience. It’s pretty amazing.” He said this like he was proud and when he faced away from me it was my turn to scoff. Smirky threw a look toward me like he didn’t know whether to be angry or just shocked.   
His mask moved down slightly where I guessed his eyebrows were like he was focusing on trying to figure out why I laughed at him.   
“I actually think it looks terrible.” Smirky turned his head away like he was going to laugh at me. We walked a little longer for a few minutes before he got curious again and turned his gaze back to me.   
“And why is that?” I turned to him.   
“Well,” I responded. “There is not any nature here. Where is the flora? The fauna? The Fast-man talked like it was a magnificent place where ‘little heroes like me’ dreamed of being. But all I see is a big metal box.”   
The dark-haired hero started to look serious and said a little quieter, “I’ll take that into consideration with the Bat.” There was that name again. Who is this ‘Bat’ everyone keeps talking about? After a while, I concluded that it must be someone really important since he has been mentioned so much already.   
After a few more minutes of walking, we stopped. I turned back to the man that was about two or three inches taller than me and waited. He didn’t respond and instead grabbed my wrist and pulled me along behind him. We were walking quicker and, after being in bed for a few days, I was having a difficult time following him without tripping. I was about to yank off his fingers that were encircled around my arm when we stopped again and he released it. I narrowed my eyes at him and they switched slightly into a more cat-like look. I didn’t appreciate being pulled down a dark hallway. Yelling at him was the first thing that was on my mind. That was until I looked to where he was pointing and my jaw went slightly ajar from its clamped position. My eyes widened in shock and then went back to their normal human look.   
The sight I saw before me was the most spectacular sight I had ever seen. There, standing before me, was a gigantic room filled with strange beeping machines and people dressed up in unique uniforms. Their attire was filled with bright colors and symbols, most with a mask to hide the identity of the person. Some of them were not wearing a mask, but that didn’t stop me from figuring out who they were. They were the superheroes Flash had been talking about. It was pretty amazing seeing other people that tried to help the same way I do. However, that was not what amazed me the most.   
I ran out across the room to the place where my attention had been grabbed. There, standing before me, was a gigantic window the size of the wall, and outside that window were billions of bright stars dazzling in the black sky. Down below was the Earth with its beautiful green and blue colors and white, wispy clouds. In all my days I had never seen anything like it. As I stood hovering over the scene with my hands pressed against the glass I felt the black and blue superhero, I had given the name “Smirkey”, walk towards me. I looked over to see him looking down at the Earth as I was seconds before. His chest was puffed out and his arms were being held behind his back in patience as I marveled over the Earth and stars.  
After what seemed like a nice ten minutes of silence I had to ask a question that had been bugging me since the incident in the medical bay. I pursed my lips before deciding to talk to the mystery man who saved me earlier. I decided to go ahead and speak. “Who, um…” I faltered. I took a deep breath before catching my bearings and decided to go ahead and ask what was on my mind.   
“Why did you call Flash Wally?” I looked over to him and saw that he was a little held-back at my question. Then he decided to go ahead and talk.   
“Why don’t you ask Flash that when you see him next? Hmm?” And with that, he looked back down at the Earth below. Now I was finally able to go to my new room The Justice League had given to me. Of course, I would end up coming back soon to look at this scene again. I turned to Smirky and delicately put my hand on his shoulder again, signaling I was ready to go. He nodded and we began to walk again.   
A few moments later I noticed me and this still unnamed hero was going in the same direction we came from. “Um… Smirky? Are we not going back to which we have come?” I said quietly, somehow unsure of myself when I talked to him. When he didn’t respond to me I turned back and shrank my shoulders in sadness. That’s until I heard a snicker come from Mr. Tall, Dark, and Nameless. I questioned him and again he laughed.   
“Smirky?” he asked and I relaxed and shrugged my shoulders. “Well, I do not know your name and you do tend to make that half-smile that tends to…” Smirky’s eyebrows lifted and I stopped what I was about to say. I was lucky because I was about to say something to him that I would have regretted.  
“I like the nick-name… but I don’t think that would be very intimidating to the people back in Blüdhaven. Nightwing’s the name.” I smiled; it was nice to have someone from the team with a name that involved animals. It reminded me of my home back in Africa. I was too busy gazing up at Nightwing dreamily to notice a few feet away Flash was scowling at us, especially Nightwing.   
We stopped in front of two large doubled doors and Nightwing pushed them open with little to no effort. But, looking at the doors I noticed that they were quite heavy. “I guess his superpower is super-strength, yes?” Before Nightwing went into the room I grabbed his arm, preventing him from moving.   
“Thank you,” I paused and looked down at my hands. “Nightwing,” I said to finish my sentence. He nodded and looked down at the arm I still held. His arm was tough and warm. It was almost twice the width of my arm. “Lion’s roar, somebody works out.” I thought to myself as I smirked and my cheeks got warm and turned slightly pink above my tan face.   
“I’m blushing!” I thought and let go of his arm and whispered under my breath, “Thank goodness I am wearing a mask.” He smiled and went through the doors. I followed behind him.   
The room looked very different from the hallways Nightwing and I had walked before. There was carpeting in the room! Oh, Lion’s roar, how I missed rooms not covered in metal! I smiled widely and ran over to the nearest couch and plopped on-top. I laid my hands over the couch’s back and looked towards Nightwing who was talking animatedly to a familiar-looking green girl a few feet away. His hands were out, motioning towards her to try to tell her my situation. The girl looked from him over towards me and gave a warm smile. Her light green lips formed into a thin line over her white teeth that perfectly contrasted with her green skin. She also had red hair that was styled into a short bob-cut with thick side bangs. After a few more minutes she came towards me and spoke with a light, cheerful voice. Well, actually she floated, but you know…  
“So Nightwing tells me you need a place to stay?” She spoke as she landed gracefully by the couch where I was still reclining. My chin had been resting on the soft fabric on the back of the couch where the pillows were. I lifted my head and looked up at the green girl.   
“That is correct,” I said drowsily as I yawned and stretched. Another smile came to her lips and she informed me to follow her. She floated back up with her cape flowing behind her in a wave of dark blue. As I followed quickly behind her down the hallway I noticed her costume looked similar to the one I saw the one known as J’ohnn wear. Somehow she noticed my observation and stated,   
“J’ohnn’s my uncle.” My blue and green eyes widened in surprise and I stared blankly at her.   
“How did you…”   
“Know what you were thinking? I’m a telepath, I can read minds.” Whoa, that’s really cool. At that moment I started to think how cool and useful it would be to be able to read minds during a battle and how much easier it would be to get information. “But, it’s not all it’s cut out to be. In the beginning, when I first came to Earth from Mars, it was hard to control my powers. If I was in a room with a large number of people it would be hard to decipher my thoughts from theirs. But, after the help from Uncle J’ohnn, I was able to control it. Now I’m one of the strongest telepaths in the Justice League.”   
She smiled and I finally realized why Nightwing had chosen her to help me settle in. I started to think of Nightwing’s white sparkling smile and tall, toned body and I felt butterflies in my stomach.   
“That was strange.” I thought and looked over to the floating Martian ahead of me and suddenly felt embarrassed. I gave a nervous laugh and ran over towards her. I poked her shoulder lightly.   
“Yes,” she asked turning to me. “Um, do you hear everything that goes through my head?” I asked gingerly. She gave a pitiful look and told me she only did if she had to or if I wanted her to.   
She was very trusting and even told me of her past and how she had to fight not to go over the edge and ‘steal’ people’s thoughts and memories for information during a fight. She had so much emotion and strength behind her voice when she told me that I began feeling distressed for her about what happened. When I told her what I thought of it she gave a meek smile.   
“It’s okay,” she said. “Thanks to my friends and Uncle J’ohnn I have been able to contain my powers. It helps to have a mentor to help you become a better hero and learn from their mistakes.” We walked for a while more down the hallway before another thought came to my mind.   
“Where is Nightwing?” J’ohnn’s niece landed her feet on the ground and turned to me.   
“Oh, I’m not sure. He probably went back to Blüdhaven. Don’t worry; he’s a very important part of the team. He’ll show up sometime, he just tends to disappear without saying a word at times.” She paused and looked around like she was looking to see if anyone was around the corner. Then she turned back to me and smiled. She leaned up a little and whispered in my ear, “I guess he learned it from his mentor.”  
“Well, who’s his mentor?” I asked and she looked around again.   
“Batman.” My eyes widened again in shock.   
“Batman!” I screamed and the Martian took a step away from me and put her pointer finger to her lips and shushed me very loudly. “Nightwing doesn’t like being compared or mentioned to Batman, kind of tired of having to live up to the Dark Knight’s expectations I guess.”  
Although I had never had a superhero mentor to live up to before, I knew how it felt to be compared to someone else. It had happened to me multiple times during my training with the lions in my early years. We stopped walking and stood by a door that looked just like the rest.   
“Well, here’s your door,” she said cheerily and the door slid open with a swoosh sound. I stretched out my neck and looked inside the darkened room hazardously. The sound that came out of the Martian’s mouth was very different from the laugh I had heard from Smirky. Her laugh was light and sounded like the sound of bells you would hear in the city near my home in Africa during the Christmas time. I turned to her.   
“Don’t you worry; soon we will be going to the mall and getting some decorations, and don’t worry about not remembering the door number. Most of the teens get something to put on the door that symbolizes them to know which door is theirs. For example, I have a picture of me and my brother Garfield about six years ago when we first met; it’s one of my most cherished memories. Well, better get in and get some rest, it’s late. You’ll have a big day tomorrow; it’s your first day.” Rushing, she pushed me in and after telling me the door code was about to close the door when I stopped it with my hand. The girl looked down and stared. At first, I didn’t understand what she was looking at and my eyes followed her gaze. By mistake, I had pulled out my burned hand and in turn, showed her some of my burns. I pulled my arm back and hid it awkwardly behind me. Lucky for me she didn’t ask about it and lifted her head back up to look at me. A small smile rose again and some of the weight on my shoulders lifted.  
This girl was nice and I realized she knew that if I wanted to talk about it I would when I was ready. I smiled, this girl was pretty cool. “What is your name?” I asked out of the blue. She smiled again.   
“My name is M’Gann. Most just call me by my Earth alias Megan…” She paused, “During missions, it’s Miss Martian. If you need any help just talk in your brain to me. I know it sounds weird, but it’ll work. I’m always open to questions and if you want to talk.” Miss Martian looked into my eyes past the mask and then to my burned arm. She floated back up into the air and was about to leave when she turned back around and faced me. “Oh! I almost forgot!” She said and raised her eyebrows like she was about to ask a question, which she was. “Nightwing said, ilikuwa nzuri kukutana nawe.”  
“Do you know what that means?” She asked and I gave a cheeky smile showing my sharp canines.   
“Yes, I do. Tell him….” I paused, thinking of the right thing to say to Nightwing. “Tell him, "Kizungu chako ni nzuri. Labda tunaweza kukutana tena na kufanya mazoezi. Una rafiki mpya. " “Your Shona is good. Perhaps we could meet again and practice. You have a new friend.” She smiled and turned back around.  
Thank you. I said it to my brain and saw another smile rise on Miss Martian’s face.   
You’re welcome. I will see you tomorrow. Good night. It was strange talking in my head to a green Martian from space, but who was I to judge? I turned back around and went into the room. The door close behind me and the lights turned on. The room was pretty big and was filled with dim, yellow lights and had a plain white-sheeted bed with- it looked like- three layers of cloth. Each was thicker than the other and it was strange for me to see such white cloth untouched and unused. In all my years of living in Africa, I had never used cloth for a bed. When I was living in the lions’ den I had slept on a hard stone floor with little to no comfort and Leon and his lionesses surrounded all around me.  
I continued to look around the room. The bed was in the middle of a wall next to the wall the door was on. On the right of the same wall where the door was there was a walk-in closet with hangers. Then, on the wall next to the door was a bathroom with a shower, sink, and toilet. The room was about the size of a suit. The last thing I noticed was my favorite part of the whole room. It was a large window almost the length of the wall and four feet from the floor. Below the window on the wall was a window seat with probably about sixteen pillows resting on it. I scurried over to the seat and after throwing off all the pillows, except one, I climbed up like a cat on all fours and lied down on my side with my head propped up on my arms and the pillow. I fell asleep that night looking at the bright, shining stars and the Earth below as the lights of the Northern Hemisphere slowly dimmed.


	7. A Monster on Your Own Front Door

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Delmira faces an enemy

Ch. 7 A Monster on Your Own Front Door

The air around me had a warm, home-like feel to it and I could smell the musky feel of the area where I had lived before I was taken to the Watch Tower. The Watch Tower only smelled of metal, and chemicals, and had no natural feel to it at all. But, here it was the total opposite. I could smell every little creature that had scurried about in an attempt to find shelter, or food... or home. They would often find shelter in my little home during the rainy days of late October to March when life was hard. I could smell nature, life, the trees, the breeze. Here, I was home. I propped my head up on my palm and looked around. A small gasp escaped my lips as I looked around. I was back home! "I am back home!" I yelled, and ran from my mat on the floor and out of the hovel. The Justice League had returned me back home like I had asked. At that moment I didn't know how they did it, but I didn't care. I was finally home where I belonged. I could live protecting the wild animals of Zimbabwe once again.

The sun was warm and comforting in the early time of the day in the wilderness of my home. I stopped a few feet away from the rustic house and stretched out my arms, feeling the muscle stretch and snap above my shoulder blades. The sun warmed them and it felt good to be outside once again. I had been getting antsy for nature since I had been inside a gigantic metal ship in space for days. Here I had never spent much time inside. Whenever I had been inside it had been when I was sleeping and most of the time when I slept it had been outside under the stars, breathing the cool night air, and feeling the dewing grass under my finger tips. Today was like any other. The air was fresh, the sun was bright, and the dirt was prominent under my shoe-less feet. I took a deep, calming breath and started to run to the cave of the lions to tell them that I had returned. My feet scraped and dirtied as I hit sharp rocks and objects that had been on the ground, but I didn't care. I was happy, I was finally home where I belonged, and the scratches would heal quickly with my super-healing. As I ran I noticed something strange about the area. No one was out, not a single soul. Usually, giraffes were by the tall trees eating leaves, elephants cooling down by the stream, alligators in the water, and monkeys in the trees, but no one was out. Not a single animal or poacher. "Where is everyone?" I questioned myself as I ran. I finally slowed down and neared the cave where the lions were usually, if they were not hunting. I put my hand on the outside of the cave and peered inside. 

The inside was dark and musky; I slightly bent down to enter and realized that no one was there. None of the lionesses were there and neither was Leon. As I narrowed my eyes to adjust to the dark I noticed that not a single thing was there that would resemble that an animal had been living there. There were no animal bones, no mice, and no lions. Where was everyone? I took a few steps forward and pointed my nose up into the air to smell. I took three short sniffs and then one long inhale through my mouth. My eyes widened in shock. An animal hadn't lived in this cave for years! "What... Where am I?" I questioned myself hesitantly. I was afraid of the answer that would come moments later. I quickly turned on my bare heel and ran out of the dark, lonely cave. 

I squinted when the bright, whitening light hit my blue eyes. The green in them brightened as I tried to see again. I put my scarred hand to my forehead in an ill attempt to keep the sun out of them. 

Standing only a few feet in-front of me was a man. But, this was no ordinary man; even though I could only see the back of him, I knew that much. He must have been almost seven feet tall and had dark, scraggly hair that was spread out over his strong, foreboding shoulders. And, then, he turned around. He was wearing a dark suit with a red stripe on the edges of his long sleeves, a jacket and a black shirt that was tucked into his pants. His eyes were dark and had almost an animal looked to them, but they weren't the look that I had in my eyes. His eyes revealed death, and hate, and destruction. They didn't have that joy and light that mine did. They only reminded me of darkness, the kind of darkness that would suffocate you in the night, leaving you bare and lifeless, without any chance of hope. But, that wasn't the thing that scared me the most.I gasped in shock and frustration when I saw it. Along the right side of his face were three long scars that started a few inches above his eyebrow and down to the hook of his square jaw. My courage seemed to dwindle as his tall form hovered over mine. He took two steps forward and all the sudden he was right next to me, suffocating me with his proximity. My eyes widened. 

"Who... who are you?" I stuttered, straightening my back and sticking out my chest in a frail attempt to gain back my valor. Leon had taught me that if you made yourself look bigger, people would feel more intimidated of you. It wasn't working too well for me, but this stranger definitely had the move perfected. 

I heard a strange noise come from the man before of me. I realized soon that he was laughing at me and he was laughing at my fear. But, it wasn't the same bell-like sound that had come from M'Gann or the strong youthful laugh that came from Nightwing. But that seemed like years ago now. It was dark and threatening, just like him. "You will learn in good time who I am runt. In good time." The man turned away from me and began to take his leave when I fell out of my reverie and jumped up. I kicked him in the back of the leg, hoping that I would knock him from his feet and question him further. But he didn't move. He didn't much as flinch. In one quick motion he swept his large arm out and struck me across the face. The blow was so painful and strong that it knocked me from my feet and landed me on the hard, dirt floor. A strike of pain started from my lower back and made its way to my neck like a shock of lightning. I had landed on my hip and I screeched out in pain as my back arched forward from the bluster. My face burned and I lifted my hand to try and cool it. Then, I noticed. My mask had flown off when he'd hit me and it now lay broken and smashed on the ground a few feet away from me. 

I looked up; the man was watching me twist in pain with a sinister smile spread across his pale lips. This man was no man, no animal, he was a monster. A hideous monster who took joy in the pain others faced around him, especially the pain which he caused. I bared my teeth at him in another weak attempt to scare him. Then he laughed again and stuck his large hand out and grabbed me by the front collar of my now dirtied and bloody shirt. I whimpered as he slowly lifted me up to meet his eyes and my feet dangled lifelessly toward the ground feet below me. "You cannot scare me. I am the superior being. I was made to rule, while others like you stood before my feet, wallowing in your own misery. You should beg for me to spare your useless-" His rant was stopped as I spit a mixture of blood and saliva into his darkened face. "You insolent..." His hand that was not holding me up from the ground rose to strike me again, but stopped. "It does not matter. You will see my power soon runt. And then you will beg for your life... asking me to spare your short, measly existence on this Earth. And, in that time, I will kill everything that you ever cared for- ever loved. In-front of your own eyes, you will watch as they die at your own cost. Then, as your scream out for their names and watch the life leave from their eyes... only then, will I finish you." He stopped and looked deep into my eyes with as much hate as I had ever seen before and he clenched his jaw. "Permanently," and then, he dropped me as I landed with a thud to the ground. "Goodbye Delmira," he said over his shoulder, and then he vanished in front of me. 

I slowly pulled my legs closer to my chest and sobbed into my knees. No one was there, no one was there to comfort me, or tell me what to do. I was all alone. ALONE, COLD, AND SCARED. With only my thoughts to surround me I buried my face in my hand and sobbed, wishing that this was all a dream...  
That this was all just a terrible, terrible dream that I could wake up from. "All just a dream..." I sobbed as I rocked myself back and forth on the dirt ground. I was wishing it all just to be a dream...


End file.
